in The Long Twentieth Century, Arrighi points out that "All dominant power use coercion and violence to get what they want, but [...] [t]hey must also credibly claim to be acting on behalf of larger, more general interests, such as market liberalization or econmic prosperity for all. This claim is 'always more or less fraudulent,' Arrighi writes [...] but it it is 'at least partly true and adds something to the power of the dominant group,' then a state can be said to have achieved hegemony, the biggest geopolitical prize there is" (Beck's summation, 279)
"The United States achieved hegemony with the end of World War II"