ABSTRACT
There have been only three true hegemonic powers in our modern world—the United Provinces, the United Kingdom, and the United States (US). The transition from the United Provinces' hegemony to British hegemony was a relatively long and drawn-out one that took about 150 years to complete. This chapter explains the concept of hegemony and details a distinction between hegemony and dominance. It provides a brief historical overview of US hegemony and dominance. The chapter outlines some of the challenges to this hegemony, which have been used by observers to indicate a waning of American power. It considers recent indications that the newly elected populist US president may, in fact, be taking America into unchartered waters that could eventually lead to the demise of the US as a global leader and precipitate the advent of a post-hegemonic era in which no country in the globe will be "hegemonic".
