Abstract: the Sole Hegemony of the United States becomes the prominent mark for the strategic situation after the Cold War, but the research in China on the American hegemony is basically staying on the level before the end of the Cold War. The studying of the“soft power” opens a new point for exploring the nature of American hegemony. Different from the “hard power” such as economic and military establishment, the “soft power” means the attractiveness and inspiration of the values, life style and social arrangement, and the capability of the assimilation and rule-making based on them. The fast expansion of the “soft power” after the Cold War promoted the “Americanization” in the process of the globalization, changed the way and the subject of the power competitions, and put an historical challenges to all of the major countries, including the Western ones.

Key Words: Soft Power; Globalization and Americanization; American Hegemony; challenges; suggestions

[Jilin University Journal Social Sciences Edition, 2001(3)]