ABSTRACT
The twenty-first century global landscape is that of a multipolar, multi-currency world. The United States, Europe, and Japan rode the previous wave of globalization during 1980-2000, but their lead in manufacturing, trade, finance, and international politics has been slipping. This shift is largest for the United States, the erstwhile hegemon and driver of the world economy. All advanced countries have become post-industrial economies that face increasing competition in the maelstrom of accelerated globalization, but only in the American case has this been combined with a mammoth trade deficit and foreign debt. The twenty-first century represents a trend break. Patterns that defined late twentieth-
century globalization are now fading, with American hegemony in decline, American capitalism teetering from its excesses, and financial crisis underminingWestern financial institutions. This discussion is a critical history of contemporary globalization through the lens of
American hegemony, organized in three sections: empire, globalization, and the afterlife of hegemony.1
