ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the third millennium America was to all appearances supreme. Whether one measured American power by the size and dynamism of its economy, continuing attractiveness to immigrants, the global spread of leading American consumer brands, the ability to project military power and to wield political influence, the use of the English language, the prevalence of American popular culture — in all these categories American power was unmatched. Even the global preoccupation with the theme of anti-Americanism told the same story of American supremacy. Anti-Americanism was simply the other side of the coin of America's global power and success. It was regularly suggested by commentators that American global influence was proportionately larger than that of the great empires of the past — the Greek, Roman, and British. Indeed one of the most popular themes among commentators both outside and inside the United States was ‘American empire’. The world was now effectively ‘unipolar’. American power might be resented but it was not seriously contested by any other nation or grouping of nations.
