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MIAMI

Judging from a massive new report by the National Intelligence Council, the long-term forecasting group of the U.S. government's intelligence community, there are other trends, going much deeper than Bush's departure or the election of the first black president in U.S. history, that point to a gradual recovery of the U.S. image abroad.

The study, "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World," which was released recently and can be read on the council's Web site, says that--ironically--the United States' decline from its status as the world's only superpower will help reduce anti-Americanism in coming years.

Between now and 2025, "the most salient characteristics of the 'new order' will be the shift from a uni-polar world dominated by the United States to a relatively unstructured hierarchy of old powers and rising nations," and non-state entities such as transnational issue groups and religions, the report says.

This means that the United States will be just first among equals by 2025, and that China, India, and Europe-- in that order--will not be very far behind it.

In that multi-polar globalized world, the following factors should help reduce anti-Americanism, it says:

Many countries are distrustful of big powers, regardless of who these powers are, it says. As China increases its military might and becomes the world's second-largest economy, some of the world's wariness will be directed at China, "and the United States' own function as a counterweight will become more appreciated," it adds.

The United States will benefit from a likely turn in the battle of ideas. Support for terrorism has declined dramatically over the last few years in many Muslim countries. "Fewer Muslims now consider suicide bombing justifiable, and confidence in Osama bin Laden has waned," it says.

As big emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere grow, "globalization will less often be equated with Americanization," it says. As developing countries become more affluent and more people join the middle classes, which has been happening in Asia in recent decades, "unwanted foreign ideas and customs will appear more the product of modernity than of American sprawl," it says.