Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country.

The last US combat brigade has crossed over from Iraq into Kuwait, but many questions still remain over the role of troops left behind and the stability of the Iraqi government going forward.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is attempting to pre-empt Congress defense spending cuts by implementing a round of his own.

Some US officials are backing away from the idea that the July 2011 deadline set by President Obama will mark a major drawdown of US forces from Afghanistan. But leading Democrats, aware of growing opposition to the war among supporters, are singing a different tune.

With all eyes on the faltering NATO campaign in Afghanistan, Iraq’s political stalemate continues to jeopardize its long-term security outlook.

The sovereign debt crisis in Europe, and soon America, will exert tremendous pressure on national defense budgets, resulting in a re-alignment of global military power from West to East.

Recent events in Kyrgyzstan have once again shone a spotlight on the politically fragile, though geopolitically crucial region of Central Asia.

Russia is poised to occupy the diplomatic space created in Latin America by American decline.

As the global media narrows its collective focus onto NATO’s struggle to re-take Afghanistan, sectarian tensions are threatening to rip apart the political fabric of Iraq.

American decline has once again become a fashionable prophecy in academic and media circles. This time, BRIC countries like China and India have replaced the specter of a rising Japan, the country that was often cited by ‘declinists’ as a challenger to American hegemony during the 1980s. This backgrounder will examine both sides of the debate and provide an objective analysis of the causes and possible effects of American decline.