The Collapse of US Hegemony is Imminent

I maintain that US hegemony, which has been the single norm in the international system since the collapse of the Soviet Union is in its twilight and will soon collapse unless certain policies--specifically economic policies--are changed. First, the US has been one of the primary agents in international action since the end of the Second World War, and in the time period since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been the single most influential actor in the international system. This to me seems to be rather apparent. In the time since, however, without a single significant threat, the US role as the world leader has undergone a systematic collapse abetted both by the rise of two significant counter-balancers as well as the steady decline of American economic prowess. Firstly, there are two significant challengers in the modern world, namely the European Union and the People's Republic of China. Each has a significant advantage economically, which cannot be ignored as a crucial part in the international system. The European Union since the Maastricht Treaty has developed the Euro which is growing significantly and has easily surpassed the free-falling dollar. The Euro currently is worth $1.44, and in some countries has replaced the dollar as the standard for international conversions. Also, the EU has the stability of several well developed countries, including but not limited to Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In past years there were calls for a European Constitution, and if this should become reality in the future there is little doubt that the newly formed confederacy would easily surpass the United States economically, and also most likely in terms of international influence. The PRC has managed to achieve what many once thought impossible, to combine relative economic freedom with a communist political system. Internationally, China is one of the leading trade partners of several countries, specifically the US, but also trading enough to help stabalize the Sudanese and Iranian regimes, despite US efforts to sanction both of these regimes. The US currently has a trade deficit of over 200 billion dollars, which makes up more than a quarter of the US trade deficit. In addition, China has funded almost the entirety of the Iraq War, a debt which could be recalled at any time to essentially bankrupt the once invincible US economy. In addition to economic dominance, the PRC also has one of the largest militaries in the world. Although this is partly due to the PRCs population, it cannot be ignored. Other countries have larger militaries than the US in total soldiers, but China is one of the few countries to have both a larger military and significant technological abilities. This makes the Chinese a military threat unlike any the US has ever faced--and given the fact that China too has a significant amount of nuclear weapons this common deterrance is ineffective with the Chinese military. My contention is not that US hegemony is undesirable, but rather that in the current system it is being surpassed by both the EU and the PRC. With every dollar that we "spend" in Iraq we fall greater and greater into debt, and the EU and PRC continue to take advantage of this. Unless the dollar undergoes a renaissance of unprecedented proportions, the collapse of the unipolar system is imminent--indeed it may already have occurred.