the United States. This event marked the effective ending of the dismal twentieth century, at the same time the shortest and the bloodiest century in human history. It is from that legacy that the world today is recovering.

How is the United States doing as the hegemonic power? As a military power it is wholly unrivaled and indeed unchallengeable. The United States operates eleven carrier battle fleets, each of which constitutes a greater concentration of destructive power than all ordnance expended in World War II. Unlike

The nineteenth century – “the Victorian age” - effectively began in 1815, with the Battle of Waterloo, and ended in August 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War. During that 99 years, the British with their enormous navy and vast overseas possessions, maintained a kind of hegemony which insured almost a century of relative peace in the world and an expansion of free trade that reached its pinnacle at the turn of the 20th century and has not been matched since then.

By the 1880s, the British had lost economic supremacy to the United States and Germany, and then were severely weakened by the carnage of 1914-18, resulting in a power vacuum such that the twentieth century is already looked upon as the most destructive period in human history. Germany’s challenge had failed by 1917 both on the high seas and in the trenches of Flanders, while the United States maintained its isolationist stance, but the British were nonetheless forced off the Gold Standard and unable to influence the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany. With no one at the helm the world drifted towards disaster.

Protected by two oceans and with colossal economic potential, the United States recovered from Pearl Harbor within six months to smash the Japanese carrier fleet at the Battle of Midway, effectively putting the Japanese into a defensive position from which they were never able to recover. In the European theatre, the German military machine was crushed between Russian armies in the north and east, American and British armies in the south and west, with the great bulk of the fighting falling on the Russians. Although the British Empire survived the war intact, that 500-year saga had effectively come to a close, and in the next 30 years the British entirely dismantled that empire which had once encompassed about a quarter of the world. As Europe lay in a kind of devastation not seen since the Black Death in the first half of the fourteenth century, the Soviet Union and the United States challenged each other for hegemony of the world, a struggle that ended in 1989, marked by the collapse of the Berlin Wall with complete victory to the United States. This event marked the effective ending of the dismal twentieth century, at the same time the shortest and the bloodiest century in human history. It is from that legacy that the world today is recovering.

How is the United States doing as the hegemonic power? As a military power it is wholly unrivaled and indeed unchallengeable. The United States operates eleven carrier battle fleets, each of which constitutes a greater concentration of destructive power than all ordnance expended in World War II. Unlike

to the United States and Germany, and then were severely weakened by the carnage of 1914-18, resulting in a power vacuum such that the twentieth century is already looked upon as the most destructive period in human history. Germany’s challenge had failed by 1917 both on the high seas and in the trenches of Flanders, while the United States maintained its isolationist stance, but the British were nonetheless forced off the Gold Standard and unable to influence the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany. With no one at the helm the world drifted towards disaster.

Protected by two oceans and with colossal economic potential, the United States recovered from Pearl Harbor within six months to smash the Japanese carrier fleet at the Battle of Midway, effectively putting the Japanese into a defensive position from which they were never able to recover. In the European theatre, the German military machine was crushed between Russian armies in the north and east, American and British armies in the south and west, with the great bulk of the fighting falling on the Russians. Although the British Empire survived the war intact, that 500-year saga had effectively come to a close, and in the next 30 years the British entirely dismantled that empire which had once encompassed about a quarter of the world. As Europe lay in a kind of devastation not seen since the Black Death in the first half of the fourteenth century, the Soviet Union and the United States challenged each other for hegemony of the world, a struggle that ended in 1989, marked by the collapse of the Berlin Wall with complete victory to the United States. This event marked the effective ending of the dismal twentieth century, at the same time the shortest and the bloodiest century in human history. It is from that legacy that the world today is recovering.

How is the United States doing as the hegemonic power? As a military power it is wholly unrivaled and indeed unchallengeable. The United States operates eleven carrier battle fleets, each of which constitutes a greater concentration of destructive power than all ordnance expended in World War II. Unlike

d drifted towards disaster.

Protected by two oceans and with colossal economic potential, the United States recovered from Pearl Harbor within six months to smash the Japanese carrier fleet at the Battle of Midway, effectively putting the Japanese into a defensive position from which they were never able to recover. In the European theatre, the German military machine was crushed between Russian armies in the north and east, American and British armies in the south and west, with the great bulk of the fighting falling on the Russians. Although the British Empire survived the war intact, that 500-year saga had effectively come to a close, and in the next 30 years the British entirely dismantled that empire which had once encompassed about a quarter of the world. As Europe lay in a kind of devastation not seen since the Black Death in the first half of the fourteenth century, the Soviet Union and the United States challenged each other for hegemony of the world, a struggle that ended in 1989, marked by the collapse of the Berlin Wall with complete victory to the United States. This event marked the effective ending of the dismal twentieth century, at the same time the shortest and the bloodiest century in human history. It is from that legacy that the world today is recovering.

How is the United States doing as the hegemonic power? As a military power it is wholly unrivaled and indeed unchallengeable. The United States operates eleven carrier battle fleets, each of which constitutes a greater concentration of destructive power than all ordnance expended in World War II. Unlike

ssians. Although the British Empire survived the war intact, that 500-year saga had effectively come to a close, and in the next 30 years the British entirely dismantled that empire which had once encompassed about a quarter of the world. As Europe lay in a kind of devastation not seen since the Black Death in the first half of the fourteenth century, the Soviet Union and the United States challenged each other for hegemony of the world, a struggle that ended in 1989, marked by the collapse of the Berlin Wall with complete victory to the United States. This event marked the effective ending of the dismal twentieth century, at the same time the shortest and the bloodiest century in human history. It is from that legacy that the world today is recovering.

How is the United States doing as the hegemonic power? As a military power it is wholly unrivaled and indeed unchallengeable. The United States operates eleven carrier battle fleets, each of which constitutes a greater concentration of destructive power than all ordnance expended in World War II. Unlike

the United States. This event marked the effective ending of the dismal twentieth century, at the same time the shortest and the bloodiest century in human history. It is from that legacy that the world today is recovering.

How is the United States doing as the hegemonic power? As a military power it is wholly unrivaled and indeed unchallengeable. The United States operates eleven carrier battle fleets, each of which constitutes a greater concentration of destructive power than all ordnance expended in World War II. Unlike the British who only ruled the waves, the United States rules all the oceans and the whole of the world’s airspace. How many carrier battle fleets exists in opposition to America’s eleven? The answer is none. In addition, the United States continues to maintain a nuclear arsenal more than adequate to destroy human civilization as we know it, because in an interdependent world the use of nuclear weapons would indeed be a shock as disastrous for the perpetrator and for the victims.

Yet accompanying this unparalleled military might, there are signs of weakness that give cause for concern. The United States has become the world’s largest debtor nation, in marked contrast to the nineteenth century British who always maintained its position as a net exporter of capital until the start of World War I. Two-thirds of the US economy relies upon consumer demand, and the goods that the consumer demands are overwhelmingly now manufactured in Asia. Wal-mart estimates that six out of every seven items sold in its stores are manufactured in China. General Motors recently announced plans to layoff another 25,000 workers, and Moody’s recently lowered Ford Motors borrowing capacity to junk bond status. The People’s Republic of China, a supposedly communist state, just bid to purchase Unocal. This trend will continue. Notwithstanding strategic concerns, foreigners now own so large a percentage of U.S. government debt that American control of its own destiny is in jeopardy. The United States remains preeminent in some areas, particularly computer software, chip design, and of course military hardware. But the manufacturing center of the world is now Asia, particularly China.

Meanwhile, the nations of Europe have accomplished what amounts to a peaceful revolution of world importance. After ceaseless fighting each other since time immemorial, in 1945 the heartland of Europe lay in ruins. It seemed as if the Europeans had finally done it to themselves once and for all. The rebuilding of Europe into a semi-coherent political body and functioning economic body has been so successful that today’s European Union, consisting of 2