The six superpowers chose sides, and formed the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance (Nye and Welch 87). After World War I, the United States was the hegemon. But because we [the United States] refused to accept our new role and instead focus on going back to "normalcy" (Nye and Welch 115), the world fell into yet another global war.
After World War II, the United States finally learned that normalcy was not what the world needed. Once accepting our role as hegemon, the United States joined the United Nations and eventually established the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council in order to help us adjust and adapt to our new place in international policy. .
The next phase of the hegemonic cycle is world power, which we can see after the World Wars that caused the United States' hegemony. During the world power stage, the hegemon has no challengers, and they are able to start making their own rules. During World War II (WWII), the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. So coming out of WWII, the two countries were together in a bipolar system which caused the Cold War. Eventually, the fall of the Soviet Union left the United States in a unipolar system and we were able to start leading the world in the way that we wanted to with the spread of democracy. .
The third phase is delegitimation, where challengers begin to recover and have enough power to start questioning the rules that the hegemon has put in place. We can see this in the lead up to WWII. Germany came out of the First World War extremely weakened, but did not stay that way. Adolf Hitler watched as other countries broke rules that the League of Nations put in place, and in 1933 started slowly challenging the rules themselves. With no consequences to their actions, they were able to start WWII.
The final phase of the long cycle is deconcentration.
