As US power falls, people-power is rising...

Never before has a United States’ Presidential election been given so much coverage in the Western World as it’s being given now. Indeed, sometimes it feels like it’s taken over our political horizon. But look, up in the sky. The world’s media-spotlights are shining in the wrong direction!

Commentators concede that as a superpower, the US is in decline. No longer strong, but grounded and gasping for breath, it must have been exposed to kryptonite. Meanwhile Europe, China, and India are dusting off their capes, positioning themselves in anticipation of the crash. Superpowers bring vastly different dialogues to world politics - war and peace.

They have the power to re-shape capitalism and the world economy, and fundamentally affect the most pressing issues of the decade. So who will fill the power vacuum that the US is leaving behind?

Russian political economist Boris Kagarlitsky - Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements joins Chris Richards to help unmask the superhero-contenders of the future, and finds social movements rather than countries may soon be the ones that are flying high:

• Modern China has merged capitalism and communism. Shi Yinhong - Professor of International Relations at the Renmin University in China’s capital, Beijing - reveals how the country and its people now see both themselves and their place in the world.
• Kamil Mahdi - a fellow of the Transnational Institute and specialist in the political economy of Arab and oil exporting countries - examines the effects that the declining influence of the United States and the rising global influence of India and China are having in the Middle East.
• Patrick Bond - the Director of the Centre for Civil Society in South Africa - celebrates the growing strength of social movements… and the multi-billion dollar legal action being taken by South Africans against the long line of foreign corporations that propped up apartheid.

The music in this program and throughout all our programs comes from the World Music Network’s wonderful collection of inspiring music from all corners of the globe. This week features the CD Rhythm of the River, which showcases a range of artists from the World Music Network’s Riverboat Records series.

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With this program, the Radio New Internationalist project comes to an end.

We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have because we’ve had a ball. But life’s commercial realities have pressed in on us and forced us to close our microphones. The good news is that there are now over 80 Radio New Internationalist programs in our audio archives just waiting for you to download at the push of a button. So if you’re looking for more radio programs, check out our website: http://www.newint.org/radio/ In addition, over the coming weeks some of our very best programs will be repeated.