The stock market just took a tumble because China isn't the economic powerhouse predicted. They have no youth to care for their elderly because of the one child policy and many other problems included air that cannot be breathed from unharnessed manufacturing - which is cheap - the very thing that our laws to protect workers and our breathing future lessened in this country. Yet, we have a political party that supports sending out jobs overseas to China and countries without safety so they they can profit more and our laborers have less work. Is the moral here that it is better to die on the job for the sake of greed and profits than to have decent working conditions and share the profits? What a concept! There are a few U.S. businesses that do follow the humane and positive sharing policy.
As for world power - of course the balance will change over time as all things change. I'm sure the European powers look with glee to any U.S. loss in its power grip, forgetting who went into the war and contributed to saving everyone's skin - you know, the war to end all wars, #II. We may have been late to the table, but the sheer power of the U.S. was major.
As for the Middle East - Europe certainly spent its colonial presence changing the arrangements of power their and exploiting resources. Now its oil and armaments in a world that lives in the times of nomadic tribes on camels with satellite phones and an archaic religion much like Catholicism and Protestant Biblical literalism. It's an evolutionary process. The middle east and Africa came into the sphere of affluent expectations without the evolutionary mind and capabilities for drastic change.
The U.S. changed in an evolutionary way - and is still doing so. Yet, we foist our ideals on countries not ready for them emotionally, religiously or economically. We learned that from the Europeans who did so ahead of us as they explored the world and passed on their religions and diseases.
Change is in every thing in the universe. Nothing is static. Movement is everywhere. Harnessing the movements that are positive is the challenge of cultures worldwide. We are one world of human beings whose blood runs red and whose ancestors roamed without borders. Until we learn to share the richness of resources this magnificent earth provides, we will be subject to chaos.