Are countries like China willing to step up and pay their fair share of dues to keep the UN running (China currently pays 2.1% of UN dues, compared to more than 25% for the US), or to capitalize revised international financial institutions or the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in a meaningful way? Unless other countries become more willing to step forward for the common good, a post-American world could quickly become a far more frightening environment than what it would replace.