By Invitation | The future of American power

Niall Ferguson on why the end of America’s empire won’t be peaceful

As it leaves Afghanistan in chaos, America’s decline mirrors Britain’s a century ago. It may also invite wider conflict, warns a historian

By Niall Ferguson

This By-invitation commentary is part of a series by global thinkers on the future of American power—examining the forces shaping the country's global standing, from the rise of China to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The contributions will be available here.

Even Americans don’t want Trump’s barmy tariffs, writes Douglas Irwin

The trade historian predicts that the damage will be geopolitical as well as economic

The Le Pen ruling is good for liberal democracy, writes Tarik Abou-Chadi

The Oxford professor says it shouldn’t matter whether the verdict emboldens the hard right or not


The boss of Siemens on how to re-energise the German economy

More must be done to nurture innovators while driving the completion of the European project, writes Roland Busch


Dan Hendrycks warns America against launching a Manhattan Project for AI

The conditions in which the atomic bomb was produced can’t be replicated in the race for superintelligence, writes the AI-safety expert

Ekrem Imamoglu’s wife on how his arrest has turned a mayor into a movement 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan can’t defeat democracy, says Dilek Imamoglu

The global trading system needs new rules, not tariffs, say Wally Adeyemo and Joshua Zoffer

A former deputy treasury secretary and a presidential economic adviser on the need to draw a sharper line between open economies and the rest