During his talk sponsored by the New American Foundation in March 2008, author Parag Khanna addressed the rising challenges facing the United States' global hegemony. According to Khanna, China and the European Union are the new contenders in the global "geopolitical marketplace."
Aside from Khanna's insight, one statement particularly puzzled me greatly: "Why am I talking about Europe, China, and the United States? What about Russia, what about India, what about Islam ... what about all those other powers?"
Initially I thought it must have been an error. The speaker must surely realize that Islam is a religion, not a political entity with a definable "geopolitical marketplace." But it was not an error, or more accurately, it was a deliberate error.