# Cumings, Bruce, "Is America an Imperial Power?," Current History (November 2003). 1.16-17

Imperialisms, Ancient and Modern, Cumings, Bruce, "Is America an Imperial Power?," Current History (November 2003)., Lines 1.16-1.17. Latin.

Canonical: https://interlinea.aeterna-institute.org/library/latin/imperialisms-ancient-and-modern/cumings-bruce-is-america-an-imperial-power-current-history-november-2003/1.16

Immanuel Wallerstein, drawing on the brilliant work of Karl Polanyi in his book, The Great Transformation , aptly defined hegemony as the simultaneous and temporary "productive, commercial and financial pre-eminence of one core [or advanced-industrial] power over other core powers." The critical element here is "productive advantage," which conditions the other two (commerce and finance). This conception assumes that the world market constitutes the primary mechanism and arena of hegemony—even if the term may also encompass empire, colonies, neocolonialism, and what is sometimes called informal empire. Military advantage, conventionally considered the essence of hegemony by realists such as John Mearsheimer, merely locks in hegemony after the fact.
Notably, too, the theory includes two senses of "temporary": an abnormal first phase of enormous competitive advantage against all others, which lasts only briefly, and the normal long phase of "temporary" hegemony in which a core state is primus inter pares. In America's case, the first temporary phase lasted from 1941 to 1971, driven by the vast economic and military power of the United States and the wartime destruction of the other industrial economies. By the time Richard Nixon became president, other economies had recovered, prompting in 1971 his announcement of a "New Economic Policy" directed against allied competitors. The United States accounted for half of all industrial production in 1945, and approximately 25 percent by Nixon's presidency. That is about where the United States is today, as well. In this crucial sense America has never been in decline, in spite of much 1980s commentary to the contrary. It remains in the middle age of hegemony—the second or long temporary phase—with many more decades left of relative predominance among the industrial powers.

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Imperialisms, Ancient and Modern, Cumings, Bruce, "Is America an Imperial Power?," Current History (November 2003).. Text: The Latin Library (thelatinlibrary.com), used with permission. Changes: HTML markup removed and the text divided into reading sections by Interlinea.
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