A data-based view of globalization suggests not a binary process of integration-isolation, but rather a layered network structure in which states occupy distinct positional roles in the global economy. It’s not participation that determines a state’s power, but where it’s situated in the global system.

Mounting debt burdens are narrowing Washington’s fiscal space and eroding confidence in the US dollar’s reserve currency status. However, history shows that severe fiscal conditions can be reversed; and if not, the more likely outcome is a gradual erosion of confidence in USD assets, not an abrupt collapse.

Structural indicators of hegemony like military, institutional, and financial capacity suggest that the US global power is far more likely to decline than collapse outright.