Page 95 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

preparing themselves for the US–China geopolitical contest.
Mahbubani says that it is their choices that will determine who

wins the rivalry contest and that these will be based on “the cold
calculus of reason to work out cost–benefit analyses of what both
the U.S. and China have to offer them”. [97] Sentiments may not
play much of a role because all these countries will base their

choice on which, the US or China, will at the end of the day
improve their citizens’ living conditions, but a vast majority of them
do not want to be caught in a geopolitical zero-sum game and

would prefer to keep all their options open (i.e. not to be forced to
choose between the US and China). However, as the example of
Huawei has shown, even traditional US allies like France,
Germany and the UK are being pressured by the US to do so. The
decisions that countries make when facing such a stark choice will

ultimately determine who emerges as the winner in the growing
rivalry between the US and China.

The US as a winner

In the camp of America as the ultimate winner, arguments are

centred on the inherent strengths of the US as well as the
perceived structural weaknesses of China.

The “US as a winner” proponents think it is premature to call
for an abrupt end of US supremacy in the post-pandemic era and
offer the following argument: the country may be declining in

relative terms, but it is still a formidable hegemon in absolute
terms and continues to possess a considerable amount of soft
power; its appeal as a global destination may be waning
somehow, but it nonetheless remains strong as shown by the

success of American universities abroad and the appeal of its
cultural industry. In addition, the dollar’s domination as a global
currency used in trade and perceived as a safe haven remains
largely unchallenged for the moment. This translates into

considerable geopolitical power, enabling the US authorities to
exclude companies and even countries (like Iran or Venezuela)
from the dollar system. As we saw in the preceding chapter, this
may change in the future but, over the next few years, there is no

alternative to the world’s dominance of the US dollar. More

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