These systemic cycles of transition have been further refined by Giovanni Arrighi in The Long Twentieth Century, outlining an evolutionary pattern of capitalist regimes that increase in size and complexity, yet decrease in duration. Like Braudel, Arrighi charts this trajectory through Genoa, Amsterdam, and Britain, but then extends his analysis to an American hegemony that has lasted from the late nineteenth century to its financial expansion, beginning in the 1970s, and into its current crisis and apparent disintegration. The dot-com bubble in 2000 and 2001, military failures since 9/11, and financial meltdown in 2008 are further proof of what he suggests is a case of power "suicide." Though the U.S. retains its military strength, the economic center of the global economy has begun to shift to East Asia, particularly China.

XREF: Connects to Arrighi's The Long Twentieth Century and Braudel's historical cycles — hegemonic transition theory in world-systems analysis.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 72