Hegemony - Good or Bad?

During our class discussion today, we began to touch on the concept of American exceptionalism. We tried to determine both its denotation and its connotation. When I first hear the words "American exceptionalism", I think of American hegemony.

For those of you who do not know the concept of hegemony, it is generally defined as leadership or dominance that a certain group or nation has over another group or groups of people. In the context of America, we are the global hegemon.

Take a step back and think about those two powerful words. We literally control everything on the entire planet. Now, the question is obvious: is this control a good or a bad thing? Can we sustain hegemony for as long as we need to?

In my opinion, I think it is a bad thing, and is not sustainable. Although global dominance is a very powerful phrase, other nations do not really appreciate it. They may look to us as the police of the world - if they have problems, they can just holler over to the US for help. To me, that is not a good position for us, especially in these harsh economic times where we need to focus on our own national problems. In fact, some authors, like Ivan Eland, believe that hegemony tanks our economy. His logic is simple: other countries need our help. That help usually involves deployed military forces to end a war or stop one from breaking out in a different country. This, in turn, means we need more money to fund these wars we get involved in, therefore using our own resources for something that does not directly involve us.

I completely agree with Eland - I think American hegemony both hinders our own economic growth, and may even make us some enemies on the way. 

I also do not believe that hegemony is sustainable. Take the example I gave from above, and imagine what would happen if we got ourselves involved in multiple conflicts. Not only would our forces be deployed in other countries, and our money be spent on stuff across the globe, there are other countries that are beginning to step up as well. China is a perfect example of this - China's GDP is currently growing at a faster rate than the United States', and China's GDP will most likely surpass ours in the coming years. Add those three elements together, and it seems quite clear that we cannot sustain our global hegemony.

What do you guys think? Is having control over almost every country a good or a bad thing, and can we sustain it? 

Here is the link for Eland's article if any of you are interested.