The U.S. is still pretty clearly the only super-power. We have a large, well-educated population, the strongest military in the world, the largest economy by far, a very high standard of living, and we're protected to a degree by oceans on both the east and west -- all positive factors in maintaining our position.

But influence doesn't happen automatically. No nation really has any "friends". Other nations an be friends or allies only so long as there's some mutual reason for doing so. Even Canada and Mexico can't automatically be counted on unless all of us work to establish a reason for our relationships. Frankly, I never thought about it in this context, but that might go a long way towards explaining why we were willing to engage in the NAFTA agreement.

There are some "rising powers" in the world. They're still a long way from being able to challenge the U.S. for super-power status, but countries like China, India, Brazil and, yes, Russia are making inroads. I think what it boils down to is for our political leaders to figure out what's in our best interest with regard to our relationships with these and other countries and begin to engage in a more proactive foreign policy than has existed under the Bush administration.

China is certainly courting both Russia and Brazil, with their wealth of natural resources. Venezuela is certainly not even a rising power, but China and Russia has made inroads in their relations with them with their sights pretty obviously set on Venezuela's huge oil reserves. In fact, Russia has some pretty capable Navy warships posted off the coast of Venezuela as we speak. I don't think they're there just for the warm weather. We should probably be reading their presence as a reason for us to figure out how to deal with Venezuela other than just calling Hugo Chavez a dangerous dictator. OK, he is that -- but how do we deal with him and his people for our benefit?

Like I've suggested, our foreign policy has to be a lot more than standing up for Israel and trying to plant democracies all over the place. Other dimensions of our foreign policy needs to be a lot more self-serving than what we've seen in the last eight years or our position in the world certainly will be challenged. As big, powerful and rich as we are, we can't continue to be successful by going it alone.