The Cost of War and the Fall of a Hegemonic Empire
February 27, 2025โข1,221 words
"Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony." ~ Noam Chomsky
"I believe - though I may be wrong, because I'm no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil." ~ Dustin Hoffman
"The scope of America's global hegemony is admittedly great, but its depth is shallow, limited by both domestic and external restraints." ~ Zbigniew Brzezinski
"The history of mankind is a history of the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the 'ruling class'. The ruling class has many manifestations. It can take the form of a religious orthodoxy, a monarchy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, outright fascism, or, in the case of the United States, corporate statism. In each instance the ruling class relies on academics, scholars and 'experts' to legitimize and provide moral authority for its hegemony over the masses." ~ Ed Crane
Power is transitory. Nations may believe their dominance is eternal, that their empires are never-ending, but history tells a story. Hegemonic empires were all unbeatable powers in their own minds, their dominance was forever. But they did not collapse through foreign conquest but collapsed from within. Their final failure was a reflection of the same mistake happening today: a war obsession and an insatiable hunger for military supremacy over economic sustainability. North America is following the same selfish course to collapse.
2025โ2030: The Cost of War of Military Spending and the AI Arms Race
The seeds of destruction have already been planted.
War is expensive, and that expense is economically suffocating in all social classes. The United States national debt will reach over $50 trillion by 2030, an unsustainable debt. Social programs will be slashed to ribbons, public trust in government will erode, and an economic collapse, far worse than the 2008 financial crisis, is on the horizon. Inflation, once minimized to a fleeting blip in the stock-market, will become a lasting phenomenon, fuelled by ongoing war expenditures. Home ownership will be beyond the means of most, as record-high interest rates and economic strain suffocate the working class. But the war machine will continue rolling. The United States and Canada will be forced into ever larger military spending, with NATO needs escalating.
Infrastructure will bear the biggest disinvestment. These will be rationalized by the politicians in the name of security, defence, and geopolitical influence, but the actual price will be borne by the declining standard of living of the common citizen. In the meantime, the world is watching. The BRICS group of countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is witnessing the gradual decline of the American hegemony and positioning themselves for a new future independent of the U.S. dollar. As they turn to alternative digital cryptocurrencies, the financial basis of the American economic hegemony is undermined. The American currency is as stable as the trust that supports it, and this trust is now dwindling.
At the same time, the global race for AI dominance is underway.
China, with vast data resources, state-sponsored investments, and a decades-long strategic plan, risks outclassing Western AI innovation. Russia, locked in cyber war and military robotics, seeks technological superiority in virtual fronts. India, rising as a technology titan, aggressively builds its AI-driven industries underground in BRICS nations and solar-powered Ai space warehouses. The BRICS countries, not burdened with the Western democracies' bureaucratic sclerosis, have a powerful centralized decision-making and accelerated deployment of AI technologies.
2030โ2040: The End of Western Supremacy and the AI Divide
The illusion of American supremacy begins to crumble. The world no longer revolves around Washington. China, India, and the BRICS block rise, propelled by internal economic growth while North America is mired in its self-destructive fixation on the military. Once the undisputed economic hegemony, the West stumbles, businesses struggle, income inequality expands, and political tensions grow. All social classes in society on the brink of collapse. Artificial intelligence becomes the defining chasm. As North America grapples with AI ethics, regulation, and corporate monopolization, BRICS nations march on, unimpeded. China's quantum computing breakthrough renders Western cryptographic security obsolete. AI-driven automation in India reengineers global supply chains. Russia's cyber warfare and generative artificial intelligence - GEN Ai - military systems breakthroughs overtake Western strategic dominance. Brazil and South Africa, in the meantime, use AI to reengineer agriculture and resource extraction, reducing their economic dependence on the West.
Internally, cracks widen
The wealthy accumulate wealth while the poor grow increasingly disillusioned. Greater economic hardship fuels protests, strikes, and outright rebellion throughout Canada. In Canada, resource-rich provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, financially drained and politically disenfranchised, their provincial governments vote on a referendum to join the USA as the 51st State. The price of prioritizing warfare over the welfare of society forces the people will rise up.
Beyond 2040: A World Without U.S. Global Dominance
Ultimately, history will force change.
After decades of economic stagnation and political turmoil, North America will reach a fork in the road: try to adapt or become obsolete.
The military-industrial complex, strained to the breaking point, will collapse under its own weight, necessitating a shift away from war-driven policies of Washington.
The United States will withdraw from foreign wars, by necessity. Concurrently, new centres of power will be constructed in regions, redefining the world map. The future is in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with traditional Western blocs, e.g., NATO, losing relevance. Canada, on its part, will need to reposition itself in a world no longer based on the assumptions of Western superiority. This will be not only economic and military collapse but seep into technology and culture. The Silicon Valley so synonymous today with innovation will find itself overshadowed by future techno-policies based in Asia. The historically monopolistic media preeminence of the United States will cease being able to compare with China, India, and Middle Eastern movie industries. Western cultural domination worldwide for centuries will crumble and be succeeded by a multi-polar world where the centre of gravity is elsewhere. As all this happens, the new order of events will be driven by artificial intelligence. Advanced AI systems will dictate economic advancement, military strategies, and social growth. Those who hold these technologies will shape the future.
The BRICS nations, strategically positioned at the leadership of AI development, will hold-all for the new world order.
The Doomed Path
History has a tendency to repeat itself. Every great empire, has walked this path before. Military over-extension, economic decline, and instability at home are the traits of the fall. North America is not witnessing a freak show; it is witnessing an inevitability. It will not be spared from the same fate as the rest of them if it keeps moving on the same track.
Power is fleeting unless used with foresight. Squander it foolishly with selfish colonialism, and it slips from your grasp like all others that have passed.
References:
- SIPRI Military Expenditure Database
https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404fsmilex_2023.pdf
- 450 military installations in the US + 800 foreign military bases = 1200 bases
- Why the U.S. Military Spends So Much Money