AMERICA IS THE SOLE SUPERPOWER AGAIN / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL OP EDITORIAL

America Is the Sole Superpower Again

China could have been a contender, but Trump has led the U.S. to a new ‘unipolar moment.’

By Arthur Herman

Richard Mia

It happened after World War II and after the Cold War—and it is happening now. 

President Trump has thrust the U.S. into another “unipolar moment,” a time when a single great power dominates the globe and crafts a new world order.

The strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, the cease-fire in Gaza, and the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro together show that the U.S. controls the tempo and direction of world events. 

Which may also come to include regime change in Iran.

It has long been recognized that the U.S. is a superpower, a sovereign state able to exert its influence and force on a global scale. 

But it now stands alone among the current great powers, with China sliding into a distant second place.

Superpower status depends on economic as well as military strength. 

The U.S. economy is poised for a strong 2026, with predictions of gross domestic product growth ranging between 2% and more than 5%. 

In addition, from artificial intelligence to quantum computing and space, the U.S. is reclaiming the heights of high tech after ceding too much advantage to China over the past two decades. 

The U.S. is also taking major steps to close the rare-earths gap with China, which will deprive Beijing of one its principal claims to global economic dominance.

Meanwhile, America’s economic muscle includes domestic oil production that has reached almost 14 million barrels a day. 

While lowering energy prices worldwide, this output derisks global economic growth and undermines Russia’s hopes for long-term regional hegemony. 

By bringing Venezuela’s oil exports—which China received at a discount—into play, the Trump administration will be holding a dagger aimed at China’s energy heart.

Another important aspect of this revived superpower dominance has been the role of tariffs. 

Mr. Trump has used them to restore fair trade and put more revenue in the U.S. Treasury. 

But he has also used them to control the direction and details of global trade by taking advantage of the U.S. economic advantage as the world’s biggest consumer. 

His policy on energy, tax cuts and deregulation will reinforce that advantage from the supply side while setting a manufacturing boom in motion.

The last time the U.S. enjoyed primacy as the sole superpower was a quarter-century ago, for a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

But Washington allowed that opportunity to slip away as the U.S. industrial base declined and China stepped into the power vacuum left by the Soviet Union.

An overconfident Washington expanded the government, depending on a “peace dividend” while trading away our military strength and defense industrial base. 

Then, after the shock of 9/11, America’s sole-superpower status was further sapped by military commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

China moved into contention as the next great economic and military power, and Russia found new purpose in trying to restore the Soviet empire.

After a further decline of U.S. power during the Obama years, the first Trump administration aimed at a policy of global stability as the great-power competition heated up again. 

Thanks to Mr. Trump, Russia’s ambitions in Eastern Europe were put on hold, and China’s posture in East Asia and the South China Sea became less menacing. 

Iran was paralyzed by U.S.-led international sanctions, almost to the point of bankruptcy.

Then the Biden administration threw stability to the winds, first with the cataclysmic withdrawal from Afghanistan, then with its diffidence while Russia invaded Ukraine. 

At the same time, the administration enabled Iran to re-exert its influence in the Middle East via terrorist proxies, culminating in the massacre in Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

Now, after only a year in office, Mr. Trump has asserted U.S. dominance on a scale not seen since the 1990s—or even World War II.

China had its chance to win the superpower sweepstakes, but it is slipping away. 

Economic woes, its failure to protect client states Iran and Venezuela, and the growing sclerosis of the Belt and Road initiative are putting paid to the idea that the 2100s might be “the Chinese century.”

China remains formidable. 

But from Europe and the Middle East to South America and Southeast Asia, the U.S. sets the agenda while China struggles with a leadership crisis. 

Beijing’s one remaining strategic initiative is its threat to Taiwan. 

Although very real, this threat is directed at an island less than 100 miles off its coast with 1/60th of its population, which perfectly sums up China’s shrinking influence.

The most recent era of great-power competition is over, and the U.S. won. 

History shows, however, that such unipolar moments are fleeting. 

It is up to the second Trump administration to make sure it doesn’t slip away—that America’s status as the dominant superpower becomes a bridge to a more secure and more prosperous future for the rest of the free world.

Mr. Herman is author of “Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II and “Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump,” the latter forthcoming in April.