The twilight of American hegemony
How rising anti-American sentiment and China’s stealthy influence herald a multipolar world.
You can blame Donald Trump all you want, but here at Collapse Life we were chronicling the unraveling of American hegemony well before he retook office. In fact, our very first article in August 2023 was entitled: ‘Why you should be concerned about last week’s BRICS meeting,’ and it laid out the shift away from a global order led by the US and other Western nations.
The decline in the US’s global status is being driven by a number of forces: economic strain, military overreach, and a weakening hold on influence around the world. As a polarized, debt-burdened nation, global challengers are rising up eager to exploit the gaps.
Two recent new articles bring this shift into sharp focus. Together, they reveal not just a superpower in retreat, but a world increasingly prepared to move past it.
Writing for Bloomberg’s opinion pages, author Adrian Wooldridge proclaims there’s “never been a better time to be anti-American.” He pins the shift on turbulence caused by Trump’s erratic foreign policy, trade wars, and his cozy relationship with Russia. But Wooldridge concedes there’s more to it than just anti-Trumpism. “There is intensifying hostility to America’s enthusiasm for throwing its political and cultural weight around — a fervor that long predates Trump and is driven as much by the country’s command of the world’s most powerful technologies [e.g., Facebook and X] as it is by its politics,” he writes.
“Living with America is like rooming with badly behaved teenagers who demand constant attention and think they have solved the mysteries of the universe.”
— Adrian Wooldridge
Anti-Americanism isn’t new, so Wooldridge’s assertion that “there’s never been a better time” is hyperbolic. Faith in US leadership was shaken in the 1970s by the Vietnam war, Watergate, decoupling from gold, and oil shocks, while in the 2000s, the Iraq war and Global Financial Crisis again severely weakened its global standing.
What sets the current moment apart is the backdrop: America is now fracturing at the seams internally at the same time its rivals, many of whom were once loyal allies, are gaining traction and looking to each other for trade and other partnerships. Countries that once followed Washington’s lead without question now hedge their bets. Today, American supremacy is not just quietly criticized but actively contested.
While Wooldridge adequately captures shifting global sentiment, a recent Newsweek report offers a more concrete measure of decline: the strategic realignment of the Caribbean. Long considered America’s exclusive sphere of influence — essentially its backyard — the region is increasingly being drawn into China’s orbit.
Trade between China and the Caribbean grew from $1 billion in 2002 to $8 billion by 2019, as the article notes. Ten nations, including Cuba and Trinidad, have joined Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Major infrastructure projects, like a $3 billion port in the Bahamas (just 55 miles from Florida) and $2.1 billion in Jamaican highways, showcase China’s deepening presence.
China is playing a long game here, using investment to build influence. Caribbean nations that once tied their economies closely to the US are now increasingly open to Beijing’s overtures, which come with fewer political strings attached. Unlike Washington, China doesn’t lecture them about ‘democracy’ or ‘human rights.’ China simply brings cash, infrastructure, and loans. And while China’s investments in ports and logistics hubs have mutual economic benefits, they also create potential leverage points for future military access. Chinese state-backed firms now own or operate over a dozen key port facilities across Latin America and the Caribbean, raising concerns in Washington about the possibility of dual-use facilities that could support Chinese naval operations.
This is a vacuum the US helped create and that China eagerly filled. Beijing has been expanding its “military diplomacy” with hospital ships, police training programs, and technology transfers, while the US has allowed its diplomatic and economic influence to flag.
America still maintains a military presence, including Guantanamo Bay — but the trajectory is clear. The Monroe Doctrine, once the bedrock of US dominance in the Western Hemisphere, is tired and increasingly irrelevant. Originally declared in 1823 to prevent European interference in the Americas, it was the rationale for US interventions from the Spanish-American War to Cold War-era coups. For two centuries, Washington treated the Caribbean as its backyard, intervening militarily when necessary. Now, it’s watching China gain influence without mounting a serious response. The decline of the Monroe Doctrine is not just symbolic; it reflects a loss of strategic willpower.
The Bloomberg and Newsweek articles — one about perception, the other about strategy, respectively — interlock. Rising anti-Americanism is weakening America’s ability to rally its allies or dictate global terms. China’s Caribbean push is exploiting that vulnerability, turning frustration into footholds. This isn’t about American influence collapsing overnight, but it is about relative decline. The dollar still dominates, but BRICS nations test alternatives. NATO still holds, but members like Turkey and Hungary flirt with rivals. The Caribbean isn’t lost, but its loyalty is no longer guaranteed.
Of course, some argue that China’s economic leverage is overstated, as loans and investments often come with heavy debt burdens that lead to backlash. Countries like Sri Lanka and Zambia have faced debt crises caused by Chinese lending, leading to accusations of “debt-trap diplomacy.” Others point out that the US remains deeply embedded in Caribbean hearts and minds through trade, tourism, and remittances from diaspora communities.
Despite this, the broader trend cannot be ignored. Even if some Caribbean nations remain wary of China’s economic model, they are clearly willing to engage in ways that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. The simple fact that the US now faces a competitor in its own hemisphere is testament to the shifting balance of power.
China’s play in the Caribbean is a perfect microcosm of the multipolar world. America is not the only game in town anymore.
The US has long held foreign relations policies that have been paternalistic and dismissive at the same time for our hemisphere. Often at the end of a gun. They have propped up dictators that encouraged our neighbors to look for alternative alignments. When those alignments were made, we worked hard to destabilize them.
First it was all about extracting resources, then it became a part of the cold war, and now it is aimed against Chinese influence. I can't say that they are not better off dealing with the Chinese than they were with the US based on the track record we have had in the region. Especially now when the "Green" policies of the west in general are about holding the region back from developing their own resources.
We have spent the better part of the last 250 years as a bad neighbor and have only been concerned about their welfare when any competitors have stepped in to fill the vacuum.
I would be very wary of taking anything Bloomberg and Newsweek write seriously. That said, the U.S. has deteriorated in numerous ways. We are $35 Trillion dollars in debt. We have been printing money hand over fist. We have been inserting ourselves into wars and conflicts that have NO bearing on the the welfare of our nation. We have been imposing the DEI, LGBTQ, Critical Race theory propaganda overseas and demanding it be adhered to or "NO money for you!" Finally we have abandoned God. Our money has printed on it "In God We Trust" but that is a lie! We certainly Do Not trust God nor do we have any genuine faith in Him. We are for all intents and purposes a neo-pagan nation. Of course there are good people and God fearing people in the U.S. but not nearly as many as there should be. Unless we ask for forgiveness and turn to Christ and obey His commandments and eschew debauchery, sexual licentiousness, child sacrifice, greed, pride, gluttony etc, the great American experiment will fail.