Sometimes one can get the impression that Martin Jacques has only a single article and that he just keeps rewriting it. It's about the decline of American (sometimes Western) power and the rise of China. Here it is again today. One might wonder, however, about the forecasting abilities of a man whose chronological reckoning is so rough and ready:
This new period is marked by the rise of China and the decline of the US. Arguably the process started around a decade ago, but at that stage it was barely noticed, such was the west's preoccupation with 9/11 and its after-effects.
A decade ago 9/11 was still two and a half years in the future. Around a decade ago no one thought of decades - even approximately - as shorter than eight years.
