Summary: | We are not just in an economic crisis. We are witnessing a global identity crisis that challenges the very nature of the international system. And the current system seems to be made after the image and likeness of the United States of America: The Global Hegemony. This paper aims to analyze the current international system in terms of challenging the U.S. hegemony; the conclusion being favorable to the status-quo. In the first part of this paper, I will make an analysis of the last 20 years of American hegemony. My investigation is based on the concepts of the realistic and liberal theories. Then, based on the imperial overexpansion theory and on the critical theory, I will review the key moments of the American hegemony challenge. The analysis will emphasize the military conflicts in which U.S. were involved since the end of the Cold War and their un-civilizing influence on the international relations. In the last part I will try to evoke the risks of overturning the existing world order, making a parallel with the period before the Second World War. Thus, because of the weakening of the U.S. and the challenges they face, the present economic crisis could find justification for the totalitarian regimes and for the nationalist effervescence which marked the period of the Great Depression of 1932 and the Second World War. In conclusion, I will try to argue a favorable response for the title of this paper.
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