The Myth of the Crisis of Hegemony and the Rise of US Global Power

This article assesses the debate surrounding the purported crisis of US hegemony in the 1970s. Contrary to arguments of American decline, we contend that the challenges of this period did not constitute a true hegemonic crisis. Instead, we argue that the postwar era laid the foundations for a global power structure that was consolidated during and after the decade. This consolidation process rested on three core pillars of the interstate order: (1) defense and security, (2) currency and finance, and (3) production and technology. Thus, the crisis reflected not a weakening of US hegemony but a growing tension between its own national autonomy and an emerging transnational economic order—a process by which the United States solidified its global power.