<P> Vacher de Lapouge did not bet on Washington and Berlin in the final contest for world domination like K'ang Yu - wei . Similarly to de Tocqueville, he guessed the Cold War contenders correctly but he went one step further . He estimated the chances of the United States as favorite in the final confrontation: </P> <P> "The reign of Europe is over, well over...The future of France seems less certain but it is unnecessary to become illusioned...I do not believe by the way that Germany might count for a much longer future...We could...envisage...the possibility that England and her immense Empire comes to surrender to the United States . The latter...is the true adversary of Russia in the great struggle to come...I also believe that the United States is appealed to triumph . Otherwise, the universe would be Russian .". </P> <P> The year after Vacher de Lapouge published his vision, H.G. Wells in Anticipations (1900) envisaged that "the great urban region between Chicago and the Atlantic" will unify the English - speaking states, and this larger English - speaking unit, "a New Republic dominating the world," will by the year 2000 become the means "by which the final peace of the world may be assured forever ." It will be "a new social Hercules that will strangle the serpents of war and national animosity in his cradle ." Such a synthesis "of the peoples now using the English tongue, I regard not only as possible, but as a probable, thing ." The New Republic "will already be consciously and pretty freely controlling the general affairs of humanity before this century closes ..." Its principles and opinions "must necessarily shape and determine that still ampler future of which the coming hundred years is but the opening phase ." The New Republic must ultimately become a "World - State ." Wells' compatriot, Journalist William Thomas Stead, titled his 1901 book The Americanization of the World or the Trend of the Twentieth Century . </P> <P> The visions of William Gladstone, Vacher de Lapouge, H.G. Wells and William Thomas Stead were borne out . The United States is the only country in the early 21st century that possesses the ability to project military power on a global scale, providing its full command of the global commons . With no viable challenger on the horizon in the short term, the current distribution of power overwhelmingly favors the United States, making the world order it set out to construct in 1945 more robust . The question that remains for international relations theorists is how long this "unipolar moment" will last . Sean M. Lynn - Jones, editor of International Security, provides a summary of arguments put forth by Kenneth Waltz, John Ikenberry, and Barry Posen . </P>

Polarity balance of power and international relations theory