ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the theoretical basis for understanding the nature of US power in the prevailing international order. US power is so significant that many contemporary scholars have termed the US as hegemonic. It describes the neo-Gramscian school of hegemony and transnational class relations. The chapter deals with world-system analysis of the great powers' rise and decline, cycles and transition. It explains the neo-realist/neo-liberal understanding of hegemony as a regime of stability for order. Although hegemonic theories will provide useful premises for the way hegemony is used, the emphasis of the book is to try to offer a sui generis consideration of the US power position. The most popular amongst the long-cycle theories is perhaps the work of George Modelski. According to Hegemonic Stability Theory (HST), the danger in the world economy without a sole power leader would be serious.
