[In this post-hegemonic analysis, Parag Khanna, Director of the Global Governance Initiative of the New American Foundation, posits a tripolar world pivoting around three poles: China, Europe and the US, each of which will be required to pay growing attention to what he describes as “swing states” and emerging “anti-imperialist belts”. The author is particularly upbeat on the possible merger of European and swing state interests:

… nothing has brought about the erosion of American primacy faster than globalization. While European nations redistribute wealth to secure or maintain first-world living standards, on the battlefield of globalization second-world countries' state-backed firms either outhustle or snap up American companies, leaving their workers to fend for themselves. The second world's first priority is not to become America but to succeed by any means necessary.