America wields a combination of military, economic and cultural power that many consider unprecedented. The way America uses this power has repercussions on every major issue of world affairs, including the prospects of regional security, the spread of democratic governance, and the provision of global public goods in economic and environmental domains. This volume explores the questions raised by American power from a variety of perspectives. Is the emphasis laid on military power likely to be self-defeating for the United States in the long run? Is "soft power" or persuasion a more effective way to promote American interests and goals? How is American predominance perceived in Europe, China and the Arab world? Will it last or will other powers coalesce to resist US hegemony? The authors address these and other fundamental questions in rigorous and historically sensitive analyses of this critical juncture in global politics. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars in political science and international relations, as well as all those concerned with and by one of the key topics of our time. Contributors include: Robert Cooper, Michael Cox, Zhiyuan Cui, Abdelwahab El-Affendi, G. John Ikenberry, Robert Kagan, Mary Kaldor, Joseph S. Nye, Thomas Risse.

The concept of hegemony is frequently and ambiguously used by the public and by the media. Most often the claim to hegemony involves the United States of America (U.S.). Therefore the author of this paper poses the question: Can the U.S. be described as hegemon since the end of the Cold War and are we at the beginning of an American 21st century? The author of this paper establishes that different understandings of hegemony exist and classifies them according to two axes: dominance-leadership and statist-ideological. Thereafter three schools of thought of international relations are presented in depth: neorealism, the World-Systems-Analysis and Neo-Gramscianism. This enables an understanding of the framework in which hegemony is located, the logic by which it is established, and the criteria by which it can be measured. The current status of the U.S. is thereafter analyzed separately, according to the three understandings of hegemony. The analysis leads to the conclusion that all three approaches strongly rely on economic principles and determinants when defining hegemony. Further, all three approaches share the understanding that the U.S. is currently a hegemon in decline.

For many years now debates over America hegemony and its supposed decline have circulated academic circles. The neo-Gramscians have greatly enriched our knowledge in this field, developing some key theoretical tools and concepts, yet ontological inconsistencies, notably the downgrading of structure, has meant their explanation of the dynamics of the contemporary world order remains somewhat incomplete. In this book, Jonathan Pass aims to counter such oversights, drawing directly on the ideas of Antonio Gramsci (amongst others) to elaborate a more sophisticated, overtly materialist, theory of world hegemony, rooted in a critical realist philosophy of science. Through the lens of this Neo neo-Gramscian (NNG) approach the book examines the complex interplay of internal and external social forces responsible for the evolving 'nature' of US hegemony, from its establishment in the 1940s, passing through its different stages of crisis and restructuring up to the present. China's spectacular rise undoubtedly constitutes a 'world event', but is it potentially a 'world hegemon'? The book seeks to sheds some light on this question, analysing the economic and geopolitical significance of China's emergence and how it affects, and is affected by, both American hegemony and its own extremely delicate 'passive revolution' at home. American Hegemony in the 21st Century presents a major contribution to International Relations, International, Political Economy, Politics and Philosophy and will be of interest to researchers looking for a more sophisticated and convincing analysis of the dynamics of the contemporary world order.

This book brings together studies of Americanization and American imperialism to assess how far the twentieth century can be seen as the "American Century".

The award-winning historian delivers a “brilliant and deeply informed” analysis of American power from the Spanish-American War to the Trump Administration (New York Journal of Books). In this sweeping and incisive history of US foreign relations, historian Alfred McCoy explores America’s rise as a world power from the 1890s through the Cold War, and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the twenty-first century. Since American dominance reached its apex at the close of the Cold War, the nation has met new challenges that it is increasingly unequipped to handle. From the disastrous invasion of Iraq to the failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fracturing military alliances, and the blundering nationalism of Donald Trump, McCoy traces US decline in the face of rising powers such as China. He also offers a critique of America’s attempt to maintain its position through cyberwar, covert intervention, client elites, psychological torture, and worldwide surveillance.

This book is a comprehensive study of cooperation among the advanced capitalist countries. Can cooperation persist without the dominance of a single power, such as the United States after World War II? To answer this pressing question, Robert Keohane analyzes the institutions, or "international regimes," through which cooperation has taken place in the world political economy and describes the evolution of these regimes as American hegemony has eroded. Refuting the idea that the decline of hegemony makes cooperation impossible, he views international regimes not as weak substitutes for world government but as devices for facilitating decentralized cooperation among egoistic actors. In the preface the author addresses the issue of cooperation after the end of the Soviet empire and with the renewed dominance of the United States, in security matters, as well as recent scholarship on cooperation.

This book analyzes ALBA’s structure and dynamics, its practicality, its medium and long-term sustainability, and its capacity to influence regional and international affairs. The work examines ALBA’s possible economic and security consequences for neighboring non-member states in the region, particularly the United States, as well as other key actors such as China, Russia, and Iran. The volume analyzes the origins, ideological orientation, structure, internal dynamics, and evolution of the ALBA initiative and its regional and international implications during its first decade of existence. It is the first comprehensive work on the subject with a multi-disciplinary perspective and it provides an analysis of the new regional, Bolivarian Alliance initiative in Latin America and its relation to the international system. The volume includes studies on the Bolivarian Alliance and Chavismo under Hugo Chávez Frías’ leadership. As a whole, this volume weaves together such crucial issues as oil politics, drug-trafficking, hemispheric security, and trade.