More from the FP

This bit from an interesting adapted article on the FP about American hegemony. I agreed with a lot more of the content than I expected to, and found the below particularly interesting (perhaps a bit obvious, but not that often deliberated within my own head). It's definitely a bit of a controversial piece (not overly so...nothing truly earth-shattering is presented), and the writing style is very approachable--not overly heady stuff at all. Good geo-political reading to wile the time away

Foreign Policy: David's Friend Goliath: "The reason is that the American political system is fragmented, which means there are multiple points of access to it. Other countries can exert influence on one of the House or Senate committees with jurisdiction over foreign policy. Or countries can deal with one or more of the federal departments that conduct the nation's relations with other countries. For that matter, American think tanks generate such a wide variety of proposals for U.S. policies toward every country that almost any approach is bound to have a champion somewhere. Even Sudan, which the U.S. government has accused of genocide, recently signed a $530,000 contract with a Washington lobbyist to help improve its image. Non-Americans may not enjoy formal representation in the U.S. political system, but because of the openness of that system, they can and do achieve what representation brings--a voice in the making of American policy."