Résumé: Recurring narratives and counter-narratives on the United States with regard to declinism are at the core of sundry International Relations’ scholars’ and policy makers’ writings that highlight basically the notion of hegemony and tackle the extent to what its decline is factual. This research attempts to cognize the American mind that- in spite of uniqueness in dreams and reality- is witnessing a fading in its unipolarity in a world that is becoming ostensibly multipolar, if not apolar. The Pax Americana, the American peace project, is challenged nowadays by the neo-conservative sway; coercive means accordingly make peace as the ontological security is at stake. National Security narratives go, henceforth, hand in hand, with the rise of the notion of neo-Pax Americana. This thesis examines how Americans are eager to keep hegemon in spite of an apparent waning hegemonic status. Through case study analyses of President Trump’s conduct and rhetoric, this work is to attest alongside scholars’ arguments and academicians’ criticism that the US policies worldwide are tainted with a ‘’moral decline’’ as transcending human rights and international law. Indeed, historical and political writings have predicted the United States hegemonic decline as a cycle all earlier empires had gone through. The thesis shows too the co-constitutive relationship between the American belief system and the US foreign policy agenda. Introducing notions as exceptionalism and ontological security helps understand why Americans rebuff their hegemonic and unipolar decline if any, and carry more hegemonic paths mirroring double standard morals. The case study of Trump and Trumpism have brought proofs that the decline of the American hegemony is actual and causal aspects are more than military or economic; they are moral. The outcome shows the US is losing the hegemon status albeit surviving as a ‘‘Hegemon No Matter What’’.

:
Langue: Anglais
Diplôme: Ph.D
Etablissement de soutenance: University of Sfax Faculty of Arts and Humanities :2021-2022
Spécialité:

Mots clés:
American narcissism
Constructivism
Ontological security
American execeptionalism
American hegemony
Human rights
International law
Declinism
Pax Americana
Hegemony
Trumpism
Hegemon
Belief system
Subjectivity
Psychoanalysis
Political culture
America first

Note: Reference [pp. 604-659] Appendix [pp. 660-680]