ABSTRACT
Powerful countries have always had the capacity and the desire to influence the international system of which they are a part (Watson 1992). What is remarkable about the contemporary era is that one country, the USA, is far more influential than any other in this regard. The USA has a unique potential to shape both the rules and regulations that govern the increasingly interconnected international system, and the behaviour of the other states and non-state actors that effectively constitute it. Consequently, in an era of ‘unipolarity’, the USA’s foreign and domestic policies have assumed unprecedented prominence in the affairs of other nations and regions as they seek to accommodate, and where possible benefit from, the evolution of US hegemony. This is an especially challenging development at a time when neoconservative thinking has exerted a powerful influence on US foreign policy, making it both more unilateral and difficult to accommodate.
