![]() economy now produces under a quarter of global GDP, compared with 40 percent in 1960. The colossus could not get its way.īut the United States’ relative decline could be seen in many indicators long before the Russian invasion. International politics had clearly entered a new era, one in which the old forms of predatory state behavior had returned, and the putative global hegemon proved unable to stop it. ![]() And as colossi do, it elicited resentment from those not content to live in its shadow.įor anyone who hadn’t noticed the growing challenges to American dominance, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in February of this year, should have erased any doubts. ![]() Even when it was locked in a mortal struggle with the alien and hostile ideology of communism, it held most of the winning cards. Its institutions of governance-a unified Department of Defense, a system of far-flung military commands, the National Security Council, specialized agencies for international development, and so on-were those of an effective global hegemon. Its economy and military emerged from the war not just unscathed but also supreme. For more than 70 years, starting in the middle of World War II, the United States bestrode the world like a colossus. ![]()
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