What exactly do I mean by the end of America? I'm not particularly interested in the geopolitical pecking order—I'll leave the question of whether the United States will lose its global pre-eminence to Zakaria and Tom Friedman. Rather, I'm looking to answer the admittedly more oddball question of how the United States will cease to be entirely—or, at a minimum, will deviate so greatly from the country we know today that it would no longer be recognizable to a contemporary American. It's possible that the end of America will be good for Americans—perhaps the United States and every other nation will melt away as the global community comes together to build worldwide peace and prosperity. (Chance of this happening: rounds down to zero percent.) It's also conceivable that we'll die along with our country: If the United States gets annihilated by nuclear weapons, a lot of us won't be around for the next phase of North American civilization.