ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what American leadership in the world political economy actually meant in the period between 1947 and 1963. It aims to show what American hegemonic leadership meant by exploring how it worked in the areas of money trade, and oil. American success in exercising hegemonic leadership was greatly facilitated by the existence of a perceived threat from the Soviet Union, and by the economic conditions fostered by the Korean war and rearmament policies in the early 1950s. Any hegemonic leadership strategy, therefore, must seek to maintain the national base of resources upon which governmental influence, and leadership, rest. The United States did indeed follow a hegemonic leadership strategy during the long decade of the 1950s. In the short to intermediate term, this strategy was a success: It assisted in the economic and political recovery of Europe and Japan, and maintained the milieu goals that the American government sought during the cold war.
