WORLD-WAR-II AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE US STATE - THE WARTIME FOUNDATIONS OF US HEGEMONY

I present an analysis of the history of U.S. expansion and rise to heg emony in World War II, and argue that the concrete global perspectives and postwar ambitions of U.S. state managers were formed in the cours e of world war itself. They were not the result of preconceived econom ic or geopolitical policies or aims. I examine U.S. expansion and post war goals in the military, economic, and political arenas, and show ho w social processes set in motion by world war in each of these dimensi ons were central in shaping the distinctive outcomes. I develop a theo retical perspective of world war as a social process, and argue that s uch an extraordinary period of violence, historical contingency, and s tate-led expansion involves potentially unique features of macrohistor ical development and change.