World affairs in the past 12 months have been dominated by "the effects of America's profound loss of authority," according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
"During 2007 the US suffered a loss of international authority as a result of the failure to impose order in Iraq," IISS director general John Chipman said.
World affairs in the past 12 months have been dominated by "the effects of America's profound loss of authority," according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
"During 2007 the US suffered a loss of international authority as a result of the failure to impose order in Iraq," IISS director general John Chipman said.
"Leaders and groups around the world sought to take advantage or to protect themselves from the consequences of this loss of prestige," Chipman said in launching the London-based institute's latest Strategic Survey Wednesday.
As a consequence, he said a few countries "flexed their muscles regionally more confident in their relative power, while radical groups sought to discredit the leaders of those countries who maintained solid relations with the US."
"Other countries appeared to hedge their diplomatic relations with the US by strengthening their links with regional powers," the director general said.
Last year, the Strategic Survey recorded that the more dramatic external ambitions of the US were informally buried by the Bush presidency that sapped the "entrepreneurial flair" of the US's previous foreign policy.
The new report warned that in spite of the efforts by US President George Bush to take a more accommodating approach, "the damage to American standing and credibility was likely to take years to repair." The US and its president were "so discredited," it said.
As a result, it said that in both the Middle East and Persian Gulf, there appeared to be "no strategies in place that could bring peace." Iraq, it said, remained a "complex web of violence, with Washington apparently powerless to engineer a political settle." Chipman described a "shuffling" in the international power and influence balance that made it difficult for strong initiatives for conflict resolution to be undertaken and complicated for diplomatic coordination needed to address some security crises.
He also painted a bleak picture for 2008, saying that the world will be "doubly consumed by the politics of parochialism - sectarian rivalries and religious disputes - and by the manoeuvres of balance of power politics - alliance politics and arms races."
"The US is too strong to stay on the sidelines of global events, but too weak to implement an agenda that it has set without wide agreement," the IISS director general said.
Russia, he said, has "accumulated great economic power at the state level but wields it in a way that weakens its reputation and causes distrust."
"Europe has reputation and economic strength but limited strategic vision and ever declining military power to support it," he added.
"In 2008, managing nuclear proliferation and terrorism will remain the priorities.
But the unsettled relations, rivalries and shifting strengths of the powers that see themselves as custodians of the state system will make the necessary coordination of approaches to these threats immensely hard," Chipman warned.
