The Working Group (WG) on United States Studies has a well-established track record since its creation in 2004. In these more than eighteen years, it has published nine edited volumes—co-edited with Siglo XXI, Batalla de Ideas, the University of Panama, and CLACSO (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2025, and 2026 (in press))—in addition to numerous working papers, essays, and research projects developed in collaboration with various academic institutions. Furthermore, it has organized dozens of meetings, panels, and seminars in twelve countries, within the framework of CLACSO Assemblies and Conferences, as well as ALAS, LASA, and other congresses. The GT proposal brings together 34 members (16 women and 18 men) from ten countries, constituting one of the most solid and continuous hemispheric academic groups, whose productions are an obligatory reference for the critical analysis of the United States.

The central theme of the research conducted over these two decades has been the hypothesis—now widely debated and increasingly accepted—regarding the crisis of US hegemony. This category, constantly discussed and reformulated within the Working Group, has become a methodological axis for interpreting the reconfiguration of global power, as well as the multiple tensions that permeate US domestic and foreign policy.

Within this framework, the Working Group has developed three converging and continuously updated lines of research. The first focuses on studying changes in the power and global projection of the United States, analyzing transformations in the international order and the relative loss of influence of the superpower in an increasingly multicentric world. This process is reflected in the expansion of the BRICS bloc, the consolidation of China as the main strategic competitor, the redefinition of Western alliances, the intensive use of economic sanctions and hybrid warfare, and the increase in tensions with emerging powers such as Russia, Iran, and other non-Western actors. Simultaneously, expressions of continuity and crisis are observed in US foreign policy, military capabilities, and technological leadership.

The second line of research focuses on internal contradictions and social reconfigurations within the United States. It examines the evolution of inequalities, job insecurity, structural debt, the struggles of social movements, identity fractures, and extreme political polarization. The analysis delves into the erosion of rights for women, youth, ethnic minorities, and migrants; the criminalization of entire communities; the rise of fundamentalist and white supremacist movements; and the institutional weakening that challenges democratic stability. These dynamics are shaped by the growing influence of the military-industrial-financial complex, whose sway over domestic and foreign policy is a central aspect of the hegemonic crisis.

The third line of inquiry addresses relations between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since the beginning of the 21st century, the region has experienced overlapping cycles of progressive governments, conservative restorations, and new geopolitical and geoeconomic disputes. Faced with this panorama, the United States has responded with a reactive strategy that combines geopolitical pressure, securitization, sanctions and blockades, attempts at political control, and renewed practices of legal, media, military, and diplomatic interference. This approach intensifies within the context of competition with China and other powers, where LAC emerges as a key arena for technological, energy, financial, and commercial disputes. Added to this is the transnational articulation of radicalized right-wing groups and conservative religious networks, which operate as vectors of influence complementary to official US policy.

The accumulated evidence confirms that the hegemonic crisis of the United States manifests itself in multiple dimensions: weakening of its democracy and internal polarization; relative loss of economic leadership to China and the expanded BRICS; successive defeats, withdrawals, or military impasses in theaters such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, which erode its capacity for global projection; increased inequality, precarity, and social tensions; expansion of white supremacy, racism, and xenophobia; and a growing dependence on hybrid warfare technologies and strategies. In its relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean, this process translates into greater regional resistance to traditional forms of domination, the continuity of the Monroe Doctrine logic in a contemporary context, broader repertoires of intervention (coercive diplomacy, lawfare, media warfare, sanctions, operations by the Southern Command), and multidimensional offensives against autonomous projects such as those of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, and others.

Simultaneously, global conflicts—such as the war in Ukraine, in which the United States and NATO play a central role, or the expanding strategic dispute in the Indo-Pacific—are rapidly reshaping the international landscape and deepening the transition to a multicentric system based on blocs and regionalism. In this context, Latin America and the Caribbean face a historic crossroads: either it consolidates its strategic marginality within a declining West, or it seizes the opportunity presented by the realignment of global power to strengthen projects of regional integration, sovereignty, social justice, and autonomous development.

The reflections of the Working Group are therefore situated at a crucial moment: the US hegemonic crisis not only allows for a critical evaluation of the hypotheses developed over almost two decades of work, but also opens fertile ground for contributing new interpretations, methodologies, and critical agendas to address the democratic, economic, and geopolitical challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean. In a scenario where the United States is reviving the theological discourse of "manifest destiny" and the growing appeal to hard power, the region needs to strengthen its capacity for agency, integration, and resistance.

The Working Group on Studies of the United States will collaborate with the Working Groups on Geopolitics, Regional Integration and the World System and on China and the Map of World Power. This collaboration will culminate in the Geopolitics Symposium within the framework of the ALAS Congress in Rio de Janeiro, in coordination with the Executive Secretariat. A similar initiative was undertaken at the CLACSO 2025 Congress. A joint podcast/program on Geopolitics is also proposed. This involves the production and launch of a podcast series, coordinated with the Working Groups on Geopolitics, Regional Integration and the World System, Studies of the United States, and China and World Power, with support from CLACSO TV. The podcast will feature monthly episodes dedicated to key topics such as: disputes over strategic infrastructure; new logistics routes and value chains; BRICS+ and the Global South; natural resources and energy transitions; the geopolitics of climate; and the remilitarization of Latin America, among others. Two other Working Groups have also been identified with whom an initial approach will be made for the proposal of activities.

From the publication of the Working Group's first book in 2007 to the present, our reflections and research have been structured around a central and enduring hypothesis: the United States is experiencing a crisis of hegemony whose internal and external manifestations continue to be crucial for understanding contemporary political, economic, and geopolitical dynamics. This hypothesis constitutes the theoretical starting point that guides our inquiry into the changes and continuities observed in the domestic U.S. landscape and in its historical relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean.

Domestically, the Working Group argues for the need to analyze the structural transformations of American society, especially those linked to increasing inequality, deteriorating working conditions, the precariousness of broad social sectors, massive indebtedness—student, mortgage, and consumer—and growing political polarization. These processes are intertwined with the erosion of rights for women, youth, migrants, and ethnic minorities, manifested in regressive reforms, criminalization, and restrictions on civil liberties. All of this coexists with the consolidation of white supremacist movements, religious fundamentalism, and expressions of political violence that openly challenge democratic foundations. The role of the military-industrial-financial complex, whose influence on public policy is increasingly evident, constitutes a central component of this internal crisis and has direct effects on the country's foreign policy. Consider in this section the analysis that has been made of the growing role of the American capitalist class or the corporate sector, if you prefer to call it that, although it is not exactly the same thing, in the political system of the United States, especially in the functioning of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, through campaign financing, revolving door mechanisms, among others.

Externally, and especially in its relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean, the hegemonic crisis manifests itself simultaneously in forms of continuity and transformation. Over the past two decades, the region has experienced cycles of progressive advances, conservative restorations, institutional disputes, and processes of geoeconomic and geopolitical reorganization that are reshaping its international integration. In response, the United States has deployed diverse influence strategies that combine traditional instruments—geopolitical pressure, security agreements, and military cooperation—with more recent tactics such as lawfare, coercive economic diplomacy through the implementation of economic sanctions, media warfare, the operation of transnational networks of radicalized right-wing groups, and a renewed prominence of the Southern Command. These practices are intensifying within the context of global competition with China, whose economic, technological, and financial presence in Latin America and the Caribbean is redefining Washington's strategic priorities.

This dual process—internal crisis and global dispute—takes on particular relevance in a context marked by critical events, such as the political reorganization resulting from the US legislative and presidential elections, the debates on the role of the Latino vote, the growing division among political elites, the rise of extremist positions, and the accumulated tensions surrounding democratic legitimacy. In parallel, the acceleration of strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific, the war in Ukraine, and the dynamics of emerging multipolarity complicate the United States' capacity for leadership and open spaces for Latin America and the Caribbean to redefine their relative autonomy.

The Working Group on US Studies will begin its new period of work with members from ten countries, each with research projects that directly address these issues and the group's central objectives, each with a differentiated capacity to influence public policy formulation and the actions of social movements, in some cases, by being part of expert groups, Technical Advisory Councils and faculty for their training.

Over the next three years, at least two annual meetings—either in person or virtual—are planned to exchange progress, discuss theoretical frameworks, review hypotheses, and strengthen collective production within a collaborative academic environment. These meetings will also foster spaces to inform public policy and social movements with the research findings, while simultaneously proposing the inclusion of these actors in the collective knowledge-building process. In parallel, the project envisions the publication of two edited volumes that will systematize the main findings on the US hegemonic crisis, its recent evolution, and its effects on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Working Group's analytical framework is based on the conviction that the crisis of US hegemony constitutes an ongoing structural process that requires examination from an interdisciplinary, critical, and situated perspective. This approach not only allows for an understanding of the specificities of the current global moment but also offers tools for interpreting the political, democratic, geopolitical, and geoeconomic challenges facing the countries of the region. In this sense, the Working Group's theoretical foundation reaffirms the importance of continuing to investigate the links between internal transformations in the United States, its international projection, and the multiple consequences this has for Latin American and Caribbean integration, sovereignty, and development.