of international relations is that as a country becomes powerful, others gang up to bring it down. that's what happened to the happsburg empire and germany and, of course, the soviet union. one great exception to this rule in modern history. the united states. america has risen to global might and has not produced the balancing opposition that many would have predicted. in fact, the astonishing position of being the world's dominant power while many of the world's next most powerful nations, britain, france, germany, japan are all allied with it. the reason surely has something to do with the nature of germany. after world war ii we revive our enemy as and turn them into allies. people around the world do see the u.s. as different from other older empyres. but it also has something to do with the way the united states has exercised power. reluctantly. historically, america was not eager to jump into the global