Whither the US empire? Despite Washington's military supremacy, its economic foundations have been weakening since the Vietnam war – accelerated by the great recession and credit-rating downgrade – and its global authority dented by the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In this accessible, punchy text, Vassilis K. Fouskas and Bülent Gökay intervene in the debates that surround the US's status as an Empire. They survey the arguments amongst Marxist and critical scholars, from Immanuel Wallerstein and others who argue that the US is in decline, to those who maintain that it remains a robust superpower. By explaining how America's neo-imperial system of governance has been working since WWII, Fouskas and Gökay link the US's domestic and foreign vulnerabilities.

The Fall of the US Empire argues that the time has come to understand the US empire not by its power but by its systemic vulnerabilities of financialisation, resource depletion and environmental degradation. Its informed and accessible style will have wide appeal to students looking for an introduction to these issues.

Vassilis K. Fouskas is Professor of International Relations at Richmond University, London and the founding editor of the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. He is the author of Cyprus: The Post-Imperial Constitution (with Alex O. Tackie, Pluto, 2009), The New American Imperialism (with Bülent Gökay, 2005), The Politics of Conflict (editor, 2007, 2010) and Zones of Conflict (Pluto, 2003). He is an editor of globalfaultlines.com and a member of the editorial board of Debatte.

Bülent Gökay is Professor of International Relations and Head of the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Keele University. He is the author of The Politics of Caspian Oil (2001), Eastern Europe Since 1970 (2005, 2006), Soviet Eastern Policy and Turkey, 1920-1991 (2006), Politics of Oil – A Survey (2007), and Muslims and Communists in Post-Transition States (with Ben Fowkes, 2011). He is the founder of globalfaultlines.com.

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
List of Tables, Graphs and Maps
Introduction
1 Global Fault-lines
2 Bretton Woods to the Abyss of Globalisation, 1944-1971
3 The Failure of Financial Statecraft [1], 1971-1991
4 The Failure of Financial Statecraft [2], 1991-2011
5 The Power-Shift to the Global East
6 Resources Depletion and Environmental Degradation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index