Hege­mo­ny is from the Greek mean­ing author­i­ty, rule, and polit­i­cal suprema­cy. Since 1945 the Unit­ed States has been the glob­al hege­mon. That is chang­ing now. The U.S. recent­ly issued its Annu­al Threat Assess­ment. It makes for inter­est­ing read­ing. It lists the var­i­ous threats Wash­ing­ton faces. It repeats the embed­ded line that Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine was ​“unpro­voked.” But the report’s focus is on Chi­na. It says, ​“Chi­na has the capa­bil­i­ty to direct­ly attempt to alter the rules-based glob­al order in every realm and across mul­ti­ple regions, as a near-peer com­peti­tor that is increas­ing­ly push­ing to change glob­al norms.” The phrase ​“rules-based glob­al order” is vin­tage Orwell. Trans­lat­ed it means that Wash­ing­ton rules the world and you’d bet­ter fol­low its dik­tats or else. But Chi­na has emerged as the major chal­lenge to U.S. hege­mo­ny thus the dan­ger of con­flict is increasing.