RiMUN Symposium: An Analysis of US Power

After first day’s committee sessions were adjourned, delegates headed for one of Radboud University’s lecture halls to attend the RiMUN symposium. Here, delegates had the chance to engage in a debate on the power of the United States and its position on the global stage. Through 3 lectures, given by Dr. Van Der Lijn (Clingendael), Prof. Dr. Jager (University of Amsterdam) and Prof. Dr. Volten (Centre for European Security Studies), the past, present and future of US power was thoroughly analyzed from different perspectives. The three members of the panel concluded that US power in terms of military as well as economic power might be contested in the long run, but not as severely as some say nowadays. They underlined that various factors make it difficult to predict how the position of the US as superpower will look like in twenty years. Therefore, picking one of the two statements, ‘the US, still a real superpower,’ or ‘the US, a superpower in decline,’ proved to be a difficult task.