UPSC IR: US unipolar dominance, overstretch and multipolar reality
The U.S. gained extraordinary strategic freedom from its post-Cold War unipolar dominance, but its repeated use of that freedom created strategic overstretch, strengthened rivals, and ultimately constrained the very freedom it sought to preserve. Yet, even as the international system has become increasingly multipolar, Washington continues to behave as though its unipolar-era freedom of action remains intact.