Before the end, we recall the beginning. Seven decades ago the road to US dominance in global affairs began in the mind of George Catlett Marshall Jr., the US Army’s wartime chief of staff (1939-1945) and the nation’s 50th Secretary of State (1947-1949) and third secretary of defense (1950-1951).

Addressing Harvard’s graduating class in June 1947, Marshall declared that “the United States should…assist in the return of normal economic health to the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.”

Ten months later, then-President Harry Truman signed the Economic Cooperation Act (ECA) into law. The ECA eventually channeled war recovery aid totaling $13 billion (about $130 billion in today’s money) mainly to European nations over four years. Its full title spelled out its ultimate purpose:

“An Act to promote world peace and the general welfare, national interest, and foreign policy of the United States through economic, financial and other measures necessary to the maintenance of conditions abroad in which free institutions may survive and consistent with the maintenance of the strength and stability of the United States.”
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Thus, the US asserted its “national interest and foreign policy” and maintained its “strength and stability” through “economic, financial and other measures necessary”. With the Marshall Plan funded by the ECA, America became the preeminent power in Western Europe, still the fulcrum of global power in the decades after World War II.

The same formula of American guns and dollars established US dominance in other regions. The US became the leading trading partner of most countries, and the greenback eased out the British pound as the world currency. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the American-led alliance in Western Europe, was replicated by the Central Treaty Organization in the Middle East, which Washington joined in 1958; and the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization, established in 1954 by the US, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

On the money front, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, postwar global financial institutions
always headed by an American president and a European managing director, respectively, buttressed US dominance in the world economy. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), marking its 50th anniversary this year, shared US economic clout in Asia with Japan, from where the ADB president always hails.

The decline of American dominance

American hegemony was never unchallenged, of course. The communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a continent-spanning behemoth just like the US, established its own empire of might and money. Soviet communism held sway from Czechoslovakia and East Germany in Central Europe to China and North Korea, while competing with Western democratic capitalism in Africa and Latin America.

That Cold War between America and Russia ended with the USSR’s dissolution in 1991, leaving the US as the sole superpower. For nearly two decades since, Washington reigned supreme, with no real challenger on the global stage.

Then came the 2007 US financial debacle, hobbling Western governments and financial systems, even as China continued its surge since its 1978 economic reforms. During that crisis, no less than then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Beijing to ask the Chinese not to unload their $1 trillion in US Treasury bills, the largest hoard of American IOUs outside America.

Several years later, China had become the largest trading partner of most nations, and the leading source of aid and foreign investment in many developing nations. In Asia Beijing launched its New Silk Road infrastructure program, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, rivaling the ADB in funding regional development.

In 2012 Washington moved to shore up its regional dominance. Then-President Barack Obama announced the Pivot To Asia policy, enhancing alliances in the region and moving to shift 60 percent of naval assets to East Asia. It also pushed new trade initiatives, one with Europe and the other with Pacific economies, excluding China.

And amid increased maritime frictions between China and the Philippines, the US forged the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement to escalate military deployment in the archipelago, and gain access to Philippine bases.

Two elections last year, however, may have ended America’s bid to maintain its regional clout. The rise of Philippine President Duterte soured relations with Washington over criticism of his antidrugs war. He then announced “separation” from America and “alliance” with China and Russia during his Beijing visit last October.

And in Washington, new President Donald J. Trump scuttled the Trans- Pacific Partnership, leaving the trade liberalization field wide for China’s Regional Cooperation Enhancement Program.

Last week American hegemony faded further. In the Asean Summit, fewer voices pushed Washington’s tough line against Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea. And Trump reportedly asked Duterte to help press Chinese President Xi Jinping on North Korea.

As every top dog knows, from the peak, there’s nowhere to go but down.ea.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/the...ican-hegemony/