[estearum]

That's called the carrot

The beauty of the United States' global hegemony is that it also has lots of sticks

[verdverm]

Those sticks look less effective today. The hegemony is in recession as the rest of the world smiles, pays omage to dear leader as needed, and works to decouple in the background.

[cmrdporcupine]

Less and less every day.

Funny thing about beating people with sticks (or even threatening to) is they tend to want to get out of way and stay away from you.

[estearum]

Agreed!

[graemep]

Sufficient sticks to get China to agree to the same rules? Overseen by whom?

[potsandpans]

What hegemony are you speaking of? The kind that can consistently keep a straight open?

[optimalsolver]

Dude, their mighty navy can't even get the Strait open.