Since this discussion’s moved on from mechanized war to economic war (which is what the New World Order is all about) let’s break down the particulars. Granted, all I’ve learned about global domination comes from playing games like Risk, Shadow President, and Civilization IV (Civ5 sucks, IMO) but the underpinning goals are very simple. To win the game, you need the following: (1) land, (2) resources, and (3) population.
The United States of America has (1), (2) & (3) in spades – in addition, we’re a young, unified nation with common ideals and have never suffered major damage from previous mechanized wars. The American Dollar is still the world’s strongest currency (even compared to the stately British Pound and the struggling Euro), we grow more food than we can consume, and our high tech manufactured goods rank among the most desired in the world – and if we run out of oil reserves, we can always invade Canada. 
China’s always been a major power (until the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese were the most technologically advanced nation on Earth) but suffered some major setbacks once the Economic Game went global. Until recently, they suffered from lack of resources and too much population, but as of the current regime they’ve become much more balanced. Still, their resurgent economy depends entirely on support from the United States, due to outsourced jobs and treasury bonds – severing ties with the U.S.A. would destroy them utterly, leaving the rest of the world relatively unscathed.
European nations during the Renaissance took advantage of Imperialism to acquire more land & resources, while the rest of the globe remained in a dark age or inhabited by stone age natives (esp. North America) – the Eurozone was created primarily to remain economically competitive in the post-Imperial era. Russia’s massive surplus of land & resources guaranteed their competitiveness despite the collapse of Communism, while Japan (with very few resources, except sushi) remained a backwater nation until their 20th Century surge, which resulted in the U.S.A. showering them with atomic bombs stuffed with Sony radios & tentacle porn.
Smaller nations like India, Taiwan & Mexico will always remain second fiddle, due to being out-competed by the larger powers; the Middle East is already teetering due to oil supplies running dry, and potential players like Brazil have yet to get their act together. Africa was never in the running, and Australia’s population remains way too low to produce anything significant besides beer, cute koalas, and treason-minded jerks who spill classified documents onto the Internet. :rolleyes:
IOW, don’t expect the U.S.A.'s position as Top Dog to change any time soon. America can’t call the shots like we used to, but the Economic Game is based on cooperative synergy, not military might – which we can always fall back on, whenever necessary.
Except California, which gets a cloned pair of ultra-green, coyote ugly liberal chicks. (Well…I’d still do Barbara Boxer on a dare, but only if I were drunk.)
I think you’re right about economic war, though.