The United States: Still a Global Hegemonic Power?

Hang Nguyen Thi Thuy

doi:10.32890/jis.8.2012.7924

Abstract

This article argues that U.S. hegemony has not declined since the end of the Cold War as claimed in much of the international relations literature. On the contrary the post Cold War international political landscape is still characterized by unipolarity in which the U.S. is the sole superpower. However what is questionable is how long the U.S. can sustain its global hegemonic power. The paper begins by discussing how hegemony has been defined. Then, while arguing that the alleged decline of U.S. hegemony by the declinists is too simplistic, the article underlines research that brings the present preponderance of U.S. power in the global politics into question. The article further describes U.S. unprecedented capabilities and its leadership in the security and economic frameworks that have constituted the foundation for the international order to provide empirical evidence to support the assertion that the U.S. remains a global hegemon.

Highlights

The conventional wisdom in much of the international relations literature assumes that there has been a relative decline in American power and hegemony since the end of the Cold War
This article puts forth an argument that U.S hegemony in the post-Cold War international political landscape has not declined and that it is still characterized by unipolarity in which the U.S remains the only superpower
The lexical meaning of hegemony is ‘leadership, authority and influence’.55. Such perspectives as hegemonic stability (HST), neo-Gramscian and structural power develop more theoreticallygrounded interpretations of hegemony and generally agree that hegemony refers to the power of a nation-state in an international system to lead and dictate the other nation-states of the system

Summary

Introduction

While arguing that the alleged decline of U.S hegemony encapsulated as ‘the Eagle has landed’[1] by the declinists[2] is too simplistic, the article highlights research that brings the current preponderance of U.S power in the world politics into question It examines U.S unprecedented capabilities and its leadership in the security and economic frameworks that have constituted the foundation for the international order to provide empirical evidence supporting the assertion that the U.S remains a global hegemon. Drawing on the findings that the U.S is the first leading nation-state in modern international history with unprecedented capabilities in all the fundamental components of power: economic, military, technological, and geopolitical, he concludes that describing this exceptional quantitative and qualitative concentration of power as ‘an evanescent ‘moment’ is profoundly mistaken’.32

The Eagle Has Not Landed

Conclusion

Findings

End Notes