Study On The American Hegemonic Decline From An American Perspective

The fall and rise of the great powers is one of the core issues of the IR studies. Similarly, the discussion about American Hegemony Decline is an important clue during the history of the Post-World War Ⅱ international relations. Since the implementation of the peaceful transfer of power between the United States and the Great Britain,the United States is a Dominant World Power which has been in the predominant place in the world,and it even creats the so-called“PAX Americana”:Needless to say,it is highly unusal for a country with only 5 percent of the world’s population to be able to organize favorable political,economic and security orders in almost every corner of the globe and to sustain them for decades. Yet that is in fact what the United States did from 1945 to 1990. And it did so while enjoying a half century of economic growth that was nearly unmatched in modern history. However,It is often said,“Moon waxes only to wane,water overflows overflow.”And it is also said “The higher up,the harder the fall.” When a state stands alone at the pinnacle of power,however,there is nowhere to go but down. And so Americans have repeatedly worried about the possibility of decline—even when the prospect was remote.After the end of the Cold War,especially since the involvement of America in the global war on terror,the American government make the “Anti-Terrorism” as the priority of its diplomatic strategy. In 2008,the most serious economic crisis since the 1930 s outbroke and swept the world. The global financial crisis which originated in the U.S. subprime crisis caused a degree of shock to American economy. The American government faces serious financial and the debt crisis,the Democrats and the Republicans struggle fiercely over the “Health Care Reform” and other issues. These problems expose the political crisis of American domestic affairs. Meanwhile,American domestic social problems are also emerging:the increase in the number of the relative poor people,the widening social gap between the rich and the poor. Not only have these problems seriously eroded the foundation of the Liberal and Democratic system of America—the middle class,but also,in turn,these problems led to a heightened political polarization in America. American Elites have great differences on the problem of American Hegemony Decline,the relevant trends of the debt crisis,and the development of the political deadlock or polarization,all those problems triggered a heated debate in America. So,a new wave of discussion about American Hegemony Decline appears once again,and there are huge disagreements on this issue in America.This paper adopts the method of sample analysis,and brings in the Media Perspective and the theory of Agenda-Setting. Thus,this paper tries to discuss the mass media,especially the academic journals’ discussion about international issues and American foreign policy,and how these discussions influence and affect the formulation,adjustment and transformation of American government’s public policy. Given that this paper attempts to do a systematic research about American Elites’ discussion on whether American hegemony is declining or not since the involvement of America in the global war on terror,based on the themes related to “American Power” as the standard,this paper sifts through the articles of Foreign Affairs since the late 20 and early 21 st century,get the study sample of 67 articles divided into 9 topics,from the number 2 of 1999 to the number 3 of 2015,over 17 years. Based on the relevant articles in Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2015,this paper makes a statistical analysis of this problem,discusses how the American elites look at the problem of American Hegemony Decline,categorizes these articles according to their themes and their authors’ identities, and tests the reasons behind the authors’ different views. Especially,this paper sorts and summarizes the logics of those different views. It finds that the results of the discussion could be divided into the views of “The Declinists”,“The Antideclinists” and “The Relative Decline”. It also finds that there is an internal relation between authors’ identities and their views towards “American Hegemony Decline”. What’s more, many American scholars,politicians and strategists present their respective views towards the problem of American Hegemony Decline and get into a heated discussion around specific issues.This paper concludes that,most of the American scholars and political leaders deny the alleged proposition of “American Hegemony Decline”. Even though some authors express some negative views in one or a few aspects,but in fact they may not really identify with the proposition of “American Hegemony Decline”. Moreover,under the influence of certain objective factors,the authors’ views on American Hegemony Decline will change over time;The discussion of the American elites on the power of America reflects the importance of the problem of Hegemony Decline to the America,because this problem has relationships to the core of the American national interest. At the same time,not only does this issue contain the concerns of the Americans for their own national security,economic prosperity,strategic stability and the international order,but also reflect a profound sense of urgency and spirit of self-criticism;The American elites’ understanding of the concept of “power”itself is in the deepening development;The“Inward-Looking Perspective”of the American elites when they discuss and review whether America’s power is also worth reflecting and learning. They agree that these problems do not come from outside America,but from within their societies. It is the problems of fiscal deficits,economic difficulties and political deadlock that are eroding America’s global influence.