US TRADE HEGEMONISM: THE POST-COLD WAR ERA

Abstract

Given the economic problems that was challenging US hegemony in the late of Cold War era, economic hegemony-seeking has been one of the foundational dimensions of US hegemonism in the Post-Cold War Era. Economic hegemony of a state depends on two main necessities: High national economic advantages, and capability for leadership of the world economy. Hence, other dimensions of hegemonic power such as high-level military power is strongly important. As a superpower state, the US has tried in the Post-Cold War era for both dominating trade opportunities and the leadership of world trade affairs. The US trade hegemony-seeking in this era has had two interrelated directions: Multilateral world direction in which the US tries to develop the GATT/WTO under American leadership, and preferential direction in which the US develops free trade agreements both regionally and bilaterally.

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