This article examines the relative erosion of U.S. economic hegemony and the emergence of a more multipolar international order. Its objective is to determine the extent to which China's rise and the consolidation of new mechanisms of economic cooperation altered the distribution of global power between 1945 and 2025, with particular emphasis on the period following the 2008 financial crisis.
The study adopts a qualitative historical-comparative approach based on documentary analysis of specialized literature, statistics, and reports issued by international organizations. The comparison is organized around three dimensions: monetary, commercial, and financial-institutional. The findings indicate that the decline in U.S. influence is uneven and does not amount to a complete replacement of its leadership. In monetary affairs, the U.S. dollar remains predominant, although international reserves and payment arrangements show gradual diversification. In merchandise trade, China has acquired a central position through industrialization, integration into the World Trade Organization, the Belt and Road Initiative, and technology-oriented industrial policies; nevertheless, the United States retains major advantages in services, innovation, and finance. At the institutional level, the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have broadened development-finance options, but they still complement rather than replace the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The article concludes that the contemporary system is best understood as an asymmetric multipolar order in which the United States preserves structural capabilities while China and other actors increasingly constrain its capacity for unilateral action.
