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One indicator for the influence of a nation in the world is the number of people willing to devote their academic career to the studies of said nation. According to this measure, the future isn’t looking very bright for the United States, if you follow this article in Time magazine. Applications for American Studies have significantly dropped in Great Britain in the last years, even though regional studies are still in fashion.

source: UCAS

Young Brits simply aren’t betting their future on the United States being able to keep their place as the only global super power left. The article links this development to the declining reputation of the United States in the leading European nations. In Germany, some institutes for American Studies also face a serious downturn in applications, as is the case in Dortmund. The institute’s director Walter Grünzweig is quoted as saying: “Students don’t trust us. We have to convince them that we’re not part of the propaganda branch of the American Embassy.”

Granted, that’s old Europe speaking right there. American studies have a lot more fans in the former east bloc. In Albania, there is ever more demand for courses. In Turkey, where the anti-american blockbuster “Valley of the Wolfes” has been a big hit two years ago and public perception of the United States is – to say the least – hostile, the desire to learn English outweighs most of the concerns.

At the same time, applications for Middle Eastern and Chinese Studies have doubled in recent years in the United Kingdom. A trend that is obviously rooted in the perceived birth of a coming super power, as Tim Wright of the British Association for Chinese Studies states: “Increasingly, people are realizing that to be successful in the world of the 21st century, they need to understand China.”

So, at one of the most challenging and therefore interesting moments in the historical development of the United States – with the trauma of 9/11 still looming, the decline of global influence after a lost decade threatening its interests in the world and the globalization substantially altering its finance and business world – the interest of students drops. Of course, to us who are still devoted to the matter it makes no difference where the United States stand in the world, but apparently this is not the case for a bigger share of young people trying to figure out what exactly they want to do in life. Not study a nation in decline, the answers seems to be.

By Kolja

Update: Discussion is going on over at Atlantic Review.