This is the text of an interview that TKP ( Communist Party of Turkey) General Secretary Kemal Okuyan gave to sol TV on June 27, 2025.
Question: It is said that U.S. hegemony is coming to an end and that the U.S. is weakening. If that is true why can’t the U.S. be stopped?
Answer: It is a clear fact that the economic power of the United States has weakened and that its hegemony has been shaken. However, claims that the U.S. is finished or defeated are highly exaggerated and have no basis in reality.
First of all, we need to understand this: the United States has been the hegemonic actor of the imperialist system, especially since the Second World War.
Imperialism is a global system, and when we look at the broad course of history, one actor eventually prevails in such a system.
In the past it was British imperialism which held the dominant position. So, what is emerging to take the US place now? The country most likely to fill that role is China.
China has achieved a very significant level of economic power. In fact, its military power is not to be underestimated.
However, at this point, China is not actively seeking to replace the United States. Instead, it is moving forward with a longer-term plan. The global system does not tolerate a power vacuum.
The United States, in order to maintain its hegemony, is in a state of constant warfare. In other words, it intervenes everywhere to preserve its hegemony.
It would be completely absurd to claim that it always fails in this effort. For example, while the United States may lose some allies, it also gains new advantages. Syria [the fall of the Assad government] , for example, is a gain for the U.S.
No matter how much Turkey claims victory, when we look at Syria, it’s clear that the winners are the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United States.
The U.S. is also forming new alliances in Asia.
At this point, there are a few things that are particularly important for us, and I’d like to mention them.
One of them is that, from the perspective of the United States, constant intervention is a necessity. In other words, U.S. imperialism can only maintain its hegemony through wars, occupation and regime changes.
On the other hand, we must ask why isn’t the opposing side acting more decisively? First, no one wants to engage in direct military confrontation with the U.S. and that’s understandable, because war is never a good thing.
The U.S. possesses an extremely powerful – in fact, a uniquely powerful – military force, and being “afraid” of such a power is not something to be ashamed of. Of course, people want to defend their own land. That’s a different matter.
But there’s another issue at play here: yes, there are very serious rivalries – even multiple layers of competition – within the imperialist system. However, there are also deep interconnections that bind the world together.
In today’s context, it has become increasingly difficult to understand who is truly cooperating with whom. To give a simple example: Turkey expresses anti-Israel rhetoric on the surface, yet its closest ally – often described as a “brother country” or even “the same nation” – Azerbaijan, is one of Israel’s strongest partners.
What enables this contradiction? Money – the profits of large corporations. There is no disagreement here. For instance, is it that China can’t break away from the United States, or that the U.S. can’t break away from China?
This is highly controversial.
Multinational monopolies around the world still retain some sense of national affiliation. If you look at major companies – Tesla is an American company, Apple is an American company – but they have massive interests in China. A significant part of their production takes place there, and China is also a major market for them.
So, when we look at the situation this way, we see a deeply interconnected world – and it’s not easy for that world to break apart. For example, some European countries that are close allies of the U.S. and members of NATO are uncomfortable with certain actions of the U.S. France for instance, is disturbed by some of the U.S.’s moves in the Middle East. Why? Because French capital, which operates independently of the U.S. to some extent, has its own interests in the region that it wants to protect.
And China. Yes, China is an ally of Iran. But take a look at this contradiction in response to Israeli attacks, Iran sometimes targets places like Haifa. The port of Haifa is operated by a Chinese company. This kind of complexity is what we are dealing with in today’s world.
That is why it is not so easy to oppose the United States without also being anti-capitalist. Because despite the many conflicts of interest – which do indeed lead to wars – there is still a web of interdependence that ties multinational corporations together. These alliance systems haven’t yet fully taken shape.
There is an example I often give: where do you place India in all this? India is one of the key components – arguably the third pillar – of the Eurasian system, the BRICS alliance, which is presented as an alternative to the U.S-led economic system. When we talk about BRICS, we must start with China, Russia and India. So, whom does India support? It supports Israel against Iran.
Clearly, there is no settled or coherent alignment yet. And the United States takes advantage of this. The U.S. plays a dual role in the world. First, it acts as the guardian of the multinational monopolies and the global capitalist system constantly intervening here and there in the name of the “free world”.
Second, it seeks to dominate the competition within the imperialist system. It has a dual mission. Because of the first role, no one is able to take a consistent and principled stance against the U.S. Everyone is trying to negotiate.
Finally, there’s one last point I’d like to make – and that’s the expectation some people had like “When Trump comes to power, things will be resolved in the world.” We said from the start that this wouldn’t be the case. Just because there’s a change in the presidency doesn’t mean the United States will stop being imperialist or stop being militarist. This has nothing to do with Trump personally. Maybe Trump genuinely believed he could bring peace to the world. But look at what happened. Trump came to power and the parts of the world that had been underestimated – especially Europe and in particular, the UK. – formed alliances with other militarist forces around the world. The former administration in the U.S. – or rather the circles that more easily controlled and manipulated that former administration, like the Pentagon – formed alliances with the UK and with Israel. As a result, they drove Trump into a war as well.
Only a Marxist can see this. Anyone who tries to understand the world just by looking at maps and counting missiles with a stick in hand will ultimately collapse under the weight of such a shallow analysis. Just like today.
That’s why understanding the imperialist world begins with understanding capital. What we call imperialism is not merely a foreign policy practice – it is the global system of multinational monopolies. This is the lens through which we must look.
We’ve entered a very difficult period, but the real deficiency lies in the absence of the people’s willingness to take a stand. Today, the only place in the world where that strength of the people is truly being felt is Palestine. In Palestine you don’t see a capitalist class. But, unfortunately, even in a country like Iran, which is attempting to resist, the people themselves are not visibly part of the struggle. The regime is resisting on its own, whether it has people’s support of not.
But what we understand by a people’s struggle is something very different. There is no strong revolutionary movement in Europe today – not even a peace movement as there used to be. This is what is lacking everywhere. Russia and Ukraine are at war, but the people have no voice.
There’s no widespread voice saying, “We have nothing to gain from this war – on the contrary, it’s against our interests”. But in fact, that’s what we need. And here in Turkey, we must create that. That is the real issue.
