Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States has been presented with a unique structural opportunity to establish world.scale hegemony. But it was not until after the 11 September terrorist attacks that an American president explicitly set out, under the pretext of the .war on terror,. to pursue hegemony in the form of a Pax Americana, that is, to build a unipolar American security order. Since then, the opposition of the other great powers, mainly of the European Union and in particular of the French.German axis, has proved a powerful stumbling block. Today, in the light of upheavals in Iraq and the US leadership.s inability to deal efficiently with its overcommitment, Pax Americana can be said to come into effect only if Europe falls prey to decay and division or Washington materializes its designs for the construction of an antiballistic missile defense shield. Rather, the key to US hegemony is the establishment of a multipolar American.led international system.
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