An analysis conducted by the British newspaper “The Economist” on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States indicated the necessity of distinguishing between the concepts of “absolute power” and “hegemony.” While Washington maintains its leadership, the rise of other economies has made this influence less unique than in the decades following World War II.

The United States is still the largest global economy at current exchange rates with a gross domestic product of approximately $32.4 trillion, 55% ahead of the Chinese economy. It is also the largest producer of oil and natural gas and is leading the race for generative artificial intelligence. However, China has surpassed it when calculating purchasing power parity, and has now excelled in the volume of industrial production and exports of goods, while the dollar’s ​​share of global reserves has declined to about 57%.

On the military level, Washington remains the most spending on defense, and possesses the most advanced technology and the largest fleet of aircraft carriers. However, modern wars, from Iraq and Afghanistan to the recent tensions in the Middle East, have proven that military superiority alone is no longer sufficient to protect economic interests and achieve political goals.

In the field of innovation and scientific research, the technological gap is rapidly shrinking in favor of Beijing, whose spending on research and development has exceeded the American counterpart, and its researchers are now publishing more than a third of the world’s leading scientific research, coinciding with the freezing of thousands of federal research projects in the United States during the second term of President Donald Trump.

This is accompanied by the tightening of immigration policies, which emerge as an additional pressure factor, after immigration has for decades been an essential lever for the American economy by attracting talent and entrepreneurs.

A reading of the global scene concludes that the current challenge facing Washington lies not only in maintaining its position as the first power, but in how to manage a multipolar world in which the centers of economic and technological influence are more widely distributed.