The Twilight of American Imperialism

By Jack Rasmus

The Twilight of American Imperialism offers a comprehensive political-economic analysis of the rise, transformation, and emerging decline of American global power. Drawing on history, economics, geopolitics, and imperial theory, economist Jack Rasmus argues that the United States has entered a new phase in which the institutions and practices that sustained its global dominance since World War II are becoming increasingly ineffective, costly, and unsustainable.
Rasmus traces the evolution of American imperialism from its continental expansion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through its emergence as the world's dominant postwar power and its period of unchallenged hegemony following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Focusing heavily on the contemporary 2024-26 period, he argues that American imperial strength reached its apex around 2007 and has since been weakened by slowing economic growth, accelerating financialization, chronic military overstretch, rising public debt, intensifying domestic political polarization, and the growing challenge posed by China, Russia, BRICS, and an increasingly independent Global South.
Unlike accounts that focus primarily on military power or foreign policy, this book examines the economic foundations of empire, drawing on historical comparisons with the Roman And British empires. It explores how the dollar system, global financial institutions, international trade, debt, sanctions, military alliances, technological competition, and multinational corporations have functioned as instruments of American influence--and why many of these mechanisms are now under increasing strain.
Combining historical analysis with contemporary political economy, The Twilight of American Imperialism presents a systematic framework for evaluating imperial power through measurable economic, financial, political, and geopolitical indicators. Whether examining the costs of perpetual war, the limits of neoliberal restructuring, the erosion of U.S. industrial capacity, or the emergence of a more multipolar international order, Rasmus offers a provocative assessment of one of the defining transformations of the twenty-first century.
Essential reading for students and scholars of international relations, political economy, history, and global affairs, this book provides an original contribution to debates over American decline, multipolarity, empire, and the future of the international system.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1963892143
• ISBN13: 9781963892147
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Clarity Press
• Length: 525 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"