Is the United States of America an Empire in Decline?

Résumé du document

While the international history was predominantly centered on Europe (Greek Empire, Roman Empire, French Empire, British Empire, etc.), the continent lost its place of leader at the beginning of the 20th century, "shattered by its long crisis" by 1945. It was surpassed by the two superpowers: the United States of America and the USSR. The United States of America was formerly a colony under the British crown: the first British permanent colony was settled in North America in 1606, at Jamestown, Virginia, and the British influence had lasted until 1776 and the American Declaration of Independence. Led by the politics of non-interventionism, protectionism and isolationism, the United States has known "the most significant systemic change that occurred during the first half of the twentieth century".

Extraits

[...] Is the United States of America an Empire in Decline? While the international history was predominantly centred on Europe (Greek Empire, Roman Empire, French Empire, British Empire, etc.), the continent lost its place of leader at the beginning of the 20th century, “shattered by its long crisis”[1] by 1945, and surpassed by the two superpowers: the United States of America and the USSR. The United States of America was formerly a colony under the British crown: the first British permanent colony was settled in North America in 1606, at Jamestown, Virginia, and the British influence had lasted until 1776 and the American Declaration of Independence. [...]

[...] The United States is traditionally anti-imperial. But its power and its military, cultural and economical dominance has made of this country the current greatest hegemony, since 1941. Ruined by the two World Wars, the British Empire declined until its end and was surpassed by one of its former colony, the United States; “Britain was simply no longer able to bear the costs of Empire”, and thus it “turned to the US for a loan”[8]. Historically isolationist, the United States is at the root of the main multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund the World Bank, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) and the United Nations (UN). [...]

[...] But the 9/11 attack expressed the rejection of the American supremacy and marked the first sign of decline of this untouchable empire. The decisions taken by the Bush administration further to this terrorist aggression were contested throughout the world, especially the choice to wage war against Iraq. Added to this world rejection of the American supremacy is the fact that the empire of the United States is threatened by the rise of other states such as China. Furthermore, according to Peer Steinbrück, Angela Merkel's finance minister, the current financial crisis “would lead to end of America as a financial superpower””[23]. [...]

[...] In short, the 1990s marked the height of the indisputable American Empire. But the height of an empire is always followed by its decline. According to R. Gilpin, the Unites States is currently in a position of world hegemony. Gilpin is the author of War and Change in World Politics, in which he develops the functioning of the cycles of the hegemony[14]. These cycles organize themselves around power relations which permit to a state to reach a territorial, political and economical expansion, in order to organize the international system in its own interest. [...]

[...] Don't Do Empire”, in History Today, March 2005; 55, Research Library Niall Ferguson, “Empire”. (London, Penguin Books, 2004) Carruthers, “International history, 1900-1945” Len Scott, “International history, 1945-1990”, in John Baylis and Steve Smith, The Globalization of World Politics. An introduction to international relations. Third edition. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). Len Scott, “International history, 1945-1990” Ikenberry, “Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order”. John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney, American Empire: Pax Americana or Pox Americana?”, from Monthly Review, http://www.monthlyreview.org/0904jbfrwm.htm. Robert Gilpin, and Change in World Politics”. [...]