Abstract

US hegemony, also called Pax Americana, has been based largely on US control over the dollar, which has acted as world money.

This hegemony has consisted of two periods; the first phase, which runs from 1945 until the fall of the Soviet bloc and based on the dominant global role of its domestic accumulation, and the second, based on the so-called Washington Consensus, and the aggressive imposition of the neoliberal agenda on the periphery through the provision of loans accompanied by conditions on domestic policies,  and forcing the opening of commercial and financial flows. These two phases made it possible to secure American hegemony, even when it seemed that it might enter into crisis, after the domestic crises of the 1970s.

The second hegemonic phase is also the phase in which the euro was created, which will act as both a domestic currency and a means of payment between Eurozone member states, and will be proposed as a potential competitor to the dollar. However, the European currency will only serve to project German hegemonic power regionally, creating new peripheries within Europe, not achieving the role de competidor esperat i alhora generant problemes estructurals al vell continent.

This phase will also be marked by China's incorporation into the WTO, with the expectation on the part of the American elites that the country would adhere totally to the neoliberal framework and that it would be transformed politically. The expected changes have not occurred, while, in 2010, China was already the world's largest exporter, doubling exports from the United States. Currently, its exports have a large presence in the manufacturing sectors of low, medium and high added value, highlighting its role as a producer of telecommunications equipment and electric vehicles. China's emergence has been accompanied by disputes with Russia since the mid-2010s, a power with military and industrial capacity, which has been demonstrated in the current war with Ukraine.

However, the main dispute is with China, which despite rising as a serious competitor for hegemony still cannot compete with the US in the field of finance and world money. That is why, following the sanctions imposed on Russia, mainly the seizure of its reserves in dollars, some periphery countries, led by China and Russia, are proposing alternatives in the financial and monetary field based on new trade and monetary agreements, which could exploit new distributed ledger technologies.

This article aims to review these developments and question the subordinate strategy followed by Western European countries in the US' current hegemonic dispute with the emerging bloc led by China. The article aims to offer a perspective of how this subordination in the neoliberal period that is reaching its exhaustion, has placed European states, especially those on the southern periphery, such as Spain, in a situation of political and economic dependence that does not offer a viable alternative for the near future.