ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a historic account of US interests after 1945, to structure an international system that can best serve US and allies' interests and needs. It examines the alleged 'decline' of that system and American power following the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system and the US failure in Vietnam. It assesses the geopolitical and economic 'declinist' argument of US power position. The chapter evaluates the validity of the declinists' position with regard to the main IR theories. It discusses the accounts of the perceived nature of US power and strategy since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The chapter focuses on the arguments developed and attempts to disclose emerging debates in the post-Cold War era. In any sense, the United States was not strictly speaking a global 'hegemony' during the Cold War. States have, according to Stephen Krasner, come to adopt a set of rules, norms, principles, and/or fixed sets of collective decision-making process.
