ABSTRACT
Today's international order is at the early stage of a significant transformation triggered by what will be a continuous and determined effort by a unipolar America to disentangle itself from the multilateral restraints of an earlier era. The United States will exercise its power more directly, less mediated or constrained by international rules, institutions, or alliances. The rest of the world will complain, but will not be able or willing to impose sufficient costs on the United States to alter its growing unilateral orientation. This explanation for the decline of American multilateralism rests on several considerations. Voting shares, veto power, and escape clauses have been integral to American multilateralism during this earlier era. But the more general claim about unipolarity and the decline of multilateralism is misleading. Power considerations and American unipolar power surely are part of the explanation for both the calculations that go into American decisions and the actions of other states.
