Abstract

The following study analyzes the exercise of power by both the United States and China in their confrontation for hegemonic dominance. Through observational and qualita- tive methods, an examination of the mechanisms underlying China’s strategic state- craft and how it implements its exercise of power reveals its genesis and how it contested and controlled the order in Southeast Asia. Navigating through economic indicators, the research determines that the decline of American power is a myth, but it establishes a decline in its influence and prestige arising from its strategic and tactical choices. The study identified multiple systemic contingencies and political irrationalities for the non-realization of systemic unipolarity, resulting in a nonpolar world. It concludes that neither the incomparable military power of the United States nor the greater economic power of China has, in the contemporary world, fundamental comparative advantages for achieving systemic hegemony.