# Live! What's Causing America's Imperial Decline? | Ep. 285

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-un-diplomatic-podcast-1187535/live-what-s-causing-america-s-imperial-decline-ep-285
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-un-diplomatic-podcast-1187535/live-what-s-causing-america-s-imperial-decline-ep-285.md
Podcast: [The Un-Diplomatic Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-un-diplomatic-podcast-1187535)
Published: 2026-02-10T07:47:29+00:00
Episode link: https://www.undiplomaticpodcast.com/episodes/285-K1Z7k3Zu
Audio file: https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/284f418a-58c6-41f7-92b9-408565487369/episodes/6d816636-7ee5-4153-9d8f-6e9aff9d1440/audio/541e89c6-639b-4b2a-8053-de2ab82155dc/default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=2cd8WWLc
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Duration seconds: 886

## Resource

Recorded on location in the wilds of New Zealand’s Kapiti Coast. Why is America declining? Grand strategists, pundits, and scholars have been debating the best label for US foreign policy during the Trump presidency: illiberal hegemony; neo-royalism; reactionary nationalism; predatory hegemony. But none of these labels offer an account of themselves. Why is the US engaged in predatory behavior abroad? Why has American hegemony ended? The answer can be found in imperialism and its causes. A crisis of capitalism is accelerating imperial decline, which is birthing what you might call the Age of Primitive Accumulation. Geopolitics has fundamentally changed, and if we don't recognize the shift as a turn to imperialist foreign policy--which facilitates primitive accumulation--we will fail to understand and respond to the darkness washing over the world.

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## Transcript

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