The ‘American Century’ – Is it over? Was it ever? What does it mean?

Abstract

Several recent books contribute to the ongoing debates concerning US global power, decline of its hegemony and the future of world order. This essay examines these debates through an assessment of Joseph S. Nye, Jr.’s study, Is the American Century Over? Jeremiads about US ‘decline’ have recurred since the 1970s. Yet prophesies of America’s demise have yet to hold up. Nye makes a persuasive case for the persistence of US ‘primacy’ and the likelihood of its continuing for decades longer. Nye uses ‘the American Century’ as a metaphor for the period of US primacy. As a culturally symbolic keyword in US political discourse, the ‘American Century’ merits closer interrogation than Nye provides. The term remains a rhetorical construct -- a polemical tool -- rather than an analytically useful concept.