Uh, yes carriers ARE everything, thats why every industialized nation in the world wants them, and hates the US Navy for having 14 of them. It's an entirely different bag of worms, but carriers are the ultimate in flexible naval power projection. Battleships of the line are gone for good, at least for the forseable future, and only the nuclear submarine can defeat the carrier battle group... Luckily we've got them coming out of our ears as well.
Yes, The UK's full deck carrier is coming along soon, and will be the premiere naval superpower in Europe, until France works the bugs out of their Charles de Gaulle class light aircraft carriers. I also expect effective medium weight carrier designs to emerge from Italy and Spain, by the end of the decade.
And gents, our next carrier design to be built by 2010, will be a magnitude more effective than our current supercarriers. CVN 78 and beyond will incorporate many stealth innovations, as well as a more effective interior design, quadruple redundancy command and control systems, databuses, damage control, and egineering/propulsion equipment.
Further, with the advent of JSF and UCAV, the airwing will be tremendously more effective. Imagine more than a hundred stealthy attack planes able to attack any target within 2000 miles of a US carrier battle group, in any weather, day or night, with prcision guided munitions.
No warning, no where to hide, no mercy.