American Century?

Few would dispute that the United States had been the world's most influential nation since Henry Luce first popularized the notion of an American Century in 1941. The significance of the influence, however, remains a subject of hot debate. This collection brings together international scholars who offer differing views on American international dominance in the past century and the prospects for its continuation into this one. These range from positive assessments of the role of the United States in forging a global community and in operating as a relatively benign global hegemon to a scathing critique of Washington policy makers for failing to reverse the ethically corrosive impact of the Cold War on American diplomatic practice.

American global influence has not been synonymous with omnipotence. The United States is not impervious to external influences and has itself been transformed by the forces of globalization—a phenomenon viewed by some as synonymous with Americanization. These essays highlight the notion that the phrase American Century implies the diffusion internationally of liberal capitalist principles. This book suggests that the role of the United States in diffusing those principles is at the heart of the debate about the significance of American global influence, whether in retrospect or in prospect. Includes the views of Asian, Antipodean, and American Scholars.

ROBERTO RABEL is Academic Director, International Development, at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He is the author of Between East and West: Trieste, the United States and the Cold War, 1941-1954 (1988).