> To take the most obvious example, if the US had already totally lost
> its hegemony, Iran would not have become an object of international
> sanctions, which Washington has been gradually expanding and intensifying,
> formally and informally.
The Empire hasn't collapsed, that's quite true, and I don't mean to minimize the hair-raising violence the Empire is still capable of inflicting on the world.
But it is definitely losing its grip - Iran can still buy pretty much whatever it wants and needs from China and Russia, while Brad Setser over at RGE says the US is increasingly dependent on the central banks of the BRIC countries to finance its current account deficit. A really stunning change from 1953, when the Empire could assassinate Iran's democracy without even lifting its little finger.
-- DRR