U.S. Hegemony Today

Abstract

American hegemony since 1945has been structurally different in its degree and type of dominance from that of any other power in the history of capitalism. Instead of simply being the biggest power with the biggest capitalism among a number of great powers, the United States was able to exercise political dominance over the entire capitalist core. Before 1945 different capitalist centers had geographically different zones of political and economic dominance. The United States ended that arrangement, making the whole capitalist world its geographical sphere of political dominance. On this basis it shaped and reshaped the conditions and forms of international capital accumulation throughout the capitalist world.

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