This is apropos a letter to the Editor from this writer carried by the newspaper in recent days, including yesterday. A reserve currency survives on three pillars: military strength, predictable governance rooted in rule of law, and a robust, stable economy.
Today, America’s economic dominance is shrinking, its global leadership is receding, its institutional predictability is weakening, and its geopolitical influence is being challenged by China, India, Russia, and an increasingly assertive Global South.
The South Africa G-20 Summit was therefore more than a diplomatic event; it was a mirror held up to the United States. It is a wake-up call for a nation that once led the free world with confidence but is now drifting into isolation, controversy, and self-inflicted decline.
If the United States hopes to restore its leadership, stabilise its currency, and reclaim its global relevance, it must reverse its inward retreat, rebuild alliances, re-enter global institutions, and embrace cooperation instead of confrontation. Only then can it regain the trust of a world that, for the first time, has shown it can move forward without America — and perhaps, if necessary, beyond it.
(Qamar Bashir)
(Concluded)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025