Analysis

'The Death Rattle of The Western Empire': US Hegemony Crumbling Before Our Eyes

Recent global events are swiftly up-ending the US-led world order as we have known it for the last couple of decades, thanks to Russia’s bold defiance of US geopolitical hegemony, journalist Jon Jeter told Sputnik.
Sputnik
Speaking to Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Wednesday, Jon Jeter, an award-winning foreign correspondent, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a former Washington Post bureau chief, said the wider perception of the United States as a the world’s most prominent political and military locomotive has shifted dramatically. He put that sea-change down to the developments within the Ukrainian and Gaza crises.

“The events since October 7th, I think that's the death rattle of the Western empire of the United States as the single greatest political and economic and military power in the world," said Jeter. £That to me is the final nail in the coffin, because we can't go back to the world the way it was before October 6th.”

The fading of US international hegemony has its roots at home too. Dimming global engagement among the general public and the ineptitude of current US political establishment have added to the overall weakening US foothold on the international arena.

“But as a country, we don't really have the intellectual resources to dig our way out of the hole that we're in. <…> I've seen this transition from a country that was very much engaged with the world. As a teenager, you could see it in the 1970s, and the 1980s up until Reagan, and then it started to change. We started to dumb down the conversation”, Jeter believes.

The speakers also discussed the effect developments on the African continent earlier this year on the status-quo the US desperately seeks to uphold.
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“One of the things that happened was the African summit [in Russia]. A bunch of African leaders came and the next week they went back and started overthrowing countries and kicking the French out. <…> the world that was scared of the big bully. And after they saw somebody punch back, people aren't as afraid anymore,” noted Garland Nixon, The Critical Hour’s co-host.
Jeter stressed the irreversible changes over the past couple of years to the balance of power and their lasting effect on the global political makeup.

“I don't think the United States or the West can put that genie back in the bottle. You know, Germany is de-industrializing. There's turn to the right by many countries in Europe, Italy and now the Netherlands. And I don't think they're going to find answers that can really help to restore the West to its past glory,” Jeter concluded.

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