Droning on

Back in the 1980s, it was already received wisdom that the era of American global domination was over. The USA was a declining power, experimenting wildly with a mad economic model, losing its cultural influence over the world. Then, apparently without warning, the USSRThe United Socialist Soviet Republic, the USA's main rival in the Cold War before it collapsed and broke up into a number of smaller states in 1991. collapsed and the USA became the undisputed master of the world.

Today, the papers are once again full of gloom about the end of the American epoch. Many thought the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan had exposed the underlying weakness of the American military. This week North KoreaA country formed in 1945 when Japanese-occupied Korea was split between a Communist government in the north and a capitalist one in the south. Today it is extremely reclusive, and hostile to the West. successfully launched a cruise missile, yet another sign that the USA is losing its monopoly on global military might.

It seems all too appropriate: the USA became the world's foremost economic power in the 1920s, and it will be in the 2020s that the curtain will fall on the American century.

But some experts have noticed that the USA is stealthily building up the deadliest arsenal in its entire history.

In just the last few years, the USA has carried out a revolution in unmanned vehiclesAny kind of vehicle that can be controlled remotely, without the need for a human driver or pilot to be physically inside it. The most famous kind of unmanned vehicle is the drone.. Earlier this month, the Department of Defense released footage of an uncrewed destroyer firing a missile. This is part of its Ghost Fleet Overlord programme to develop robotic ships to fight alongside crewed warships, and ultimately replace them.

It may be possible for the USA to go to war without putting any American soldiers in the firing line.

That casts Afghanistan in a new light. The USA has a fleet of deadly unmanned dronesDrones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes. that can fire a 49kg missile at any corner of the world from an altitude of 50,000 feet. And they can be dispatched from almost 2,000km away, meaning that no American soldier has to get anywhere near the target.

So withdrawing from Afghanistan might not be proof of the weakness of its military, but a symbol of its new strength: its ability, unique in history, to strike its enemies without putting its own soldiers at risk.

That gives the USA a big advantage. China has long believed that the USA would never enter into a lengthy ground war with its own forces, because the cost in American lives would be too great. Now it seems like the USA could go to war without risking a single soldier, which would make the conflict much less politically risky.

The USA's military revolution also indicates a new confidence that it easily can contain the threat from terrorism and refocus its horizons on rival nation-states. Twenty years ago, to eliminate the threat from Al-QaedaThe terrorist organisation was set up in 1988 by Osama bin Laden and other Arab volunteers fighting in the Soviet-Afghan War., it had to maintain a large ground force in Afghanistan.

But to destroy DaeshThe Arabic acronym for ISIS., it adopted a much less intensive strategy, using a mixture of air strikes and local militias to keep its own troops out of harm's way. If it can rely just on its airpower to fight terrorism, it can redirect its formidable ground and naval forces towards great powers like Russia and China.

Is a new age of American power just beginning?

Absolutely, say some. Throughout human history, superpower after superpower has been brought down by their own populations' resistance to prolonged war. Now that the USA has become the first power in history that can wage war without any cost in its own lives, it is unstoppable.

Not at all, say others. The USA's military might keep on growing but economically it is running out of steam, and its internal politics remain horribly divided. It has lost ground in the Middle East and its European allies are no longer sure of its support. This is still an age of American decline.