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Overview
Although the United States is currently the world's only military and economic superpower, the nation's superpower status may not last. The possible futures of the global system and the role of U.S. power are illuminated by careful study of the past. This book addresses the problems of conceptualizing and assessing hegemonic rise and decline in comparative and historical perspective. Several chapters are devoted to the study of hegemony in premodern world-systems. And several chapters scrutinize the contemporary position and trajectory of the United States in the larger world-system in comparison with the rise and decline of earlier great powers, such as the Dutch and British empires.
Synopsis
The US is currently the only economic and military superpower, and yet there are many signs this hegemony may not last, including significant economic challenges from other nations and groups of nations, widespread disagreement with US military and diplomatic policies, terrorist attacks, and discontent with US-style corporate globalization. Yet how does one conceptualize and assess these signs in comparison to those of other times? In these nine articles, contributors examine the elaborate and perhaps dead-end paths to a modern world system, a series of comparisons of Dutch, Ottoman and British declines in hegemony to those apparently being faced by the US, and the issues wrought by indigenous people and terrorists in hegemony and their influence in its decline. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR