Page 43 - ACTL Journal Win24

lies compared to America and its allies around the world. At the present time, America and its allies in Europe and Asia have vastly superior resources and economic power. He ob- served that having allies is the factor that is most important.
“If you look at America and our allies - NATO and our Asian allies - the gross domestic product of all of those na- tions is $55 trillion a year; $55 trillion a year. China’s, to- day, is about $18 trillion a year. Russia’s is about $2 trillion. Many of you probably know that Russia’s GDP is less than the state of California.
“In the world, there are four elements of national pow- er: Economic power, diplomatic power, military power, informational/disinformational power and technology.
Those four elements; those are the levers that nations use to influence each other. Of the four, rhetorical question, which is the most important? Economic, diplomatic, mil- itary, or technology?
“Economic. Absolutely, without question, because the eco- nomic power underpins everything else. I think of econom- ic power just like I think of military firepower or diplomatic influence. You’ve got to have it. America’s GDP, by ourselves, is about $24 trillion a year. Not all that much more than China and Russia combined. If I’m going into a battle in the Great Power Competition, I want economic firepower.
I want allies. I want allies that have strong economies. It’s not all one way just for us.”
Admiral Martoglio noted that the world is presently “bipo- lar” and that the future can involve conflict or a measure of cooperation.
“One of the questions I get asked very often is, is America a sunset empire? Are America’s best days behind it? And I kind of smile because [of ] all the times over the last fifty, sixty, sev- enty years when people said America’s best days are behind it.
“And yet, here we are, still the most powerful, influential nation on the face of the earth, bar none. So why is that? My sense is I call it American Robustness. [Look at] a list of attributes that America possesses - the best in the world - and only America has this number of attributes. No other nation has anything like this.”
So his final conclusion: AMERICA’S COLLECTION OF WORLD-LEADING ATTRIBUTES AND THE ABILI- TY TO SUSTAIN EACH FOR DECADES TO COME FAVORS AMERICA AND ITS ALLIES IN THE CON- TEST WITH CHINA, RUSSIA, AND THEIR ALLIES – AS LONG AS OUR LEADERS, BUSINESS INTERESTS, AND CITIZENS USE THE ATTRIBUTES WISELY!
Paul Fortino Portland, OR
WINTER 2024 JOURNAL 42