Why are so many people thinking a multipolar world would be better then a Unipolar one?
What happened the last multiple times we have had multipolarworlds? Well close enough to them? World war 2.
I don't think a multipolar world is better, but the current unipolar world is simply not sustainable. The circumstances that allowed the US to dominate the world as a massive military power is different that exist now. Our economy was larger in comparison to the rest of the world's for one. The rest of the world's population was healthier and younger. Social cohesion within the US was the strongest it had been in our entire history. Our rival was a landlocked power who was a significant threat that required a massive alliance to keep locked down.
That's simply not the case anymore.
Economically, the US is stagnant. We've gotten the bulk of economic activity from that invention as possible. And what boom we had we did not enjoy, as our globalist politicians sold our blue collar workers down the river to China for the sake of corporate greed. We had a massive influx of foreigners, some of whom have put an even greater strain on our already strained system because of blue collar job flight. The Russians are a declining power. The Chinese are a peaking power. Our adventures in the Middle East have brought us nothing but pain and regret.
When the US isn't the big dog anymore, who will be there to make sure China, Russia, Iran, and any numerous country that has land claims from taking those claims? The nation holding it? No country is really able to be able to defend against any of the big enemies of ours without US support. At least not long enough to matter.
if the US does not stay the Unipolar power, it will have China be the second, perhaps even replace us. Then you have China going to war with many countries, wiping out populations. Making us reliant on them....
On China
China will not be the next Superpower to challenge the USA. The Chinese are powerful, the Chinese are numerous, and the Chinese are very sophisticated--but they're on borrowed time and that time is nearly up. The Chinese system was starting to stall out before Trump was elected. In the next 3 years, the constant trade wars delivered severe shocks to their system. In the past two years, the growing American aggression and COVID-19 have broken the Chinese system (which was already broken). They're running almost entirely on inertia now.
Once the US-Chinese trade relations break--and they may break over the Winter Olympics (of all things), the Chinese economy simply reverses back to pre-industrial levels in large areas of the country. The Chinese cannot absorb what they produce. Without the US trade relations, they don't have an economy. It would be as if the EU stopped trading with Germany. It would implode under the weight of its export market.
The question is, can China reach out and take Taiwan and other Asian nations before it collapses under its own weight? It's certainly trying, but it's questionable if China has the time, resources, or wealth to make it happen. Especially when they're being opposed by the USA. And contrary to what people think with Afghanistan, the US is probably NOT going to back down from Taiwan. We don't have any real strategic interest in Afghanistan anymore. We have a lot of interest in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and others.
We don't even have to take the fight directly to China. We just stop anyone from trading with them by sea, cut off their internet access to the wider world (or at least, cripple it), and then prevent any oil from reaching them by sea. China's power will collapse upon itself within a month or so. That's why Xi has grown evermore tyrannical. He's preparing for total lockdown.
On Iran
Four years ago, the Iranians would probably have plowed their way through a good portion of the Middle East. But after 4 years of Trump's full press policy and COVID-19, Iran is suffering from its own problems. That's not to say that Iran is harmless, but a lot of Iran's wealth has evaporated over the past half decade. Even Biden's new team isn't backing down like Iran hoped they would. They want concessions that are closer to what Trump wanted than what Obama had made.
It's questionable if Iran is going to be capable of sustaining a war into the rest of the Middle East in its current state, probably for the next 10 years, maybe 20 if we're lucky. That's not to say it can't happen. A larger country in crises is not above invading a neighbor to alleviate its economic (and population) concerns.
On Russia
Russia is also on a downward spiral. That doesn't mean that Russia is harmless. Whereas Iran has been crippled by sanctions and disease--and China's power is heavily reliant on other nations and contained by US military strategy, the Russians are not. They didn't break under sanctions and although they are no longer a Superpower, as the US is, they are a major power. And that carries a great deal more weight than people in living memory might recall.
Russia has both the military power, the will, and the economic means to push West. Worst of all, they are desperate to do so. Whereas China and Iran were spreading out as a means of expanding their power, Russia must expand to preserve its dying strength. It needs to close the length of their borders by anchoring in geo-strategic locations. That means pushing all the way into Poland. It means operating in areas of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It means addressing the threat of Turkey to the south.
So Russia may expand, but it is doing so because the Russian people are dying and fundamentally broken. Their only choice--their only chance at survival is to expand and consolidate their power long enough to address their dying people. So you may have Russia expand in the next 5-20 years, only for the state to collapse upon itself in 80-100 years.
But obviously the fall of A-stan is just the start of a multipolar world where the US and every other country lives happily ever after. Like every time in world history before World War 2....
Oh no, the world is going to shit in a handbasket. The vast majority of the world is entirely reliant--nay, addicted to the US's unipolar world. But that world ended some time ago. We were shifting back to a multipolar world in the 2000s, but it was only manifesting itself on an economic, not a military level. The problem is that as interests diverge, those economic concerns shift into military concerns. Always have, always will.
That doesn't mean that the US will get weaker though. Rather, the US is overstretched economically, as judged by its domestic voters. And as they never envisioned the US as an imperial power, they see no reason to retain its current posture. So services will slim down, the military will be slimmed down. But not as far as some might fear. The US is too paranoid by terrorist attacks or sneak attacks to just disarm like it did before. Instead, what the expectation is, is that the US will only engage when and where it wants to. The US fleets become far more mobile. The US won't show up to nation build Afghanistan, but it might show up to turn Iran's oil infrastructure into a series of smoldering craters, then go home. Basically gunboat diplomacy.
Things will get better for the US. Things will get worse for most everyone else on the planet.