The US is actually controlling the shape of the world

The USSR rises as a US rival. The USSR collapses. For a few decades the US becomes the sole global hegemony.

The US already has decades of experience covertly attacking nation states that act against the interests of the US.

The US declares that China can be part of the growing global world order. The US actively funds the growth of China with focused trade.

China rises up, the moment it gets anywhere close to showing signs of overtaking the US, US trade wars start, US and western funding in China begins to decline.

The European Union shows signs of uniting soon, all of a sudden the UK is no longer in the European Union even though it does not benefit from leaving.

The 2008 financial crisis occurs, it makes it impossible for Europe to ever catch up to the US.

The 2020 covid economic crisis event occurs. It makes it impossible for China to ever catch up to the US.

Russia wages a war with Ukraine. US imposes sanctions on Russia guaranteeing their demise over the years. Russia is left using up all the resources they had ever shaped up.

China is being stalled. At the same time Mexican economy and Indian economy begins to go up. US investment into India is on the rise.

Indian economy surpasses the Chinese economy, comes 2/3rds of the way to the US, US-India trade war occurs and Indian economy begins to stagnate and slowdown similarly to the Chinese economy before it.

Japanese economy comes close to surpassing the US economy, the Japanese economy stagnates and two generations are lost without any meaningful growth to the Japanese economy.

The US is indisputably controlling the world in terms of putting down their competitors every few decades and there is no question about it. In this agenda the US has no true allies. It would even weaken the European Union to ensure it cannot challenge the US at any point in time.

Canada is a healthy neighbor next to the US, over time the Canadian economy begins to fall behind.

The same pattern emerges. The US abhors equals on the world stage.

The US desires for the whole world to be developed and prosperous two to three steps below the US, forever squabbling with one another while the US remains above and beyond in a league of its own.

Saudi Arabia places Oil embargoes on the US to get it to do what Saudi Arabia wants in the 20th century, by the 21st century the US is producing its own oil and replacing oil with renewables.

Cuba challenged the US. Today Cuba is still embargoed by the US and is failing as a state, with as many as 2 million Cubans having escaped the country in recent years.

The world continues to reach parity with itself with the exception of the US.

The US funds a bunch on players to come 2/3rd of the way to its own economy, then begins to tear apart all the advantages that adversary has while building up another territory to increase trade and investment with the US.

The US never breaks a relevant partner down, just slows them down enough as to ensure the next additional dollar of profit comes from somewhere else.

The same rule applies to the US immigration policy. The US gets too many African slaves. To balance it out the US gets as many Europeans as it can. The US got too many Europeans, the US shifts to getting as many South Americans as it can. The US got too many South Americans, the US shifts to getting as many Asians as it can. Always a diverse diaspora of people. Never letting one group dominate in numbers over another group completely. At the end no single community truly holds all the power. The immigrant can only embrace the American identity to have power for no other identity has the required power to do anything worthwhile with.

The American state keeps backups with backups. Every idea, no matter how stupid, is tested and planned around. They have the budget for it. Zombies. Aliens. Werewolves. The US military apparatus is prepared for it all.

The US creates imaginary overpowered adversaries to always stay one step further ahead. Meanwhile they do everything they can to ensure nobody ever actually reaches the same step as them.

Over time, the challenge keeps getting harder. With the soviet union an entity that was too spread out collapsed. With Japan the place had a smaller population than the US and could be competed against and beaten down. With Europe they were never properly fully integrated. Holes could be widened. Individual nations spoken to to push US interests in Europe. With China things got harder. A billion plus people to deal with and keep behind the US forever. Only absolution was to be found in the one child policy of China which threw away their own future for a fast growing present. They never learned that extreme brutality has unintended consequences. They still continue on to make the same mistakes.

Next comes India, a greater challenge than China when it does reach its peak. Far more populous than China at its peak. Far larger international diaspora. Far less alien or aggressive culture, making it harder to represent them as some global evil. Only country with an actual likelihood of surpassing the US with sheer numbers. Only hope is to completely shift investment from India to every other part of the world when India nears its peak. Even that guarantees nothing.

The US and the countries it deals with all get too big over time. Too big to play with the little nation states. The US can no longer care about what happens in Bhutan, or Nepal, or Pakistan. All the world below middle income status falls down the hole without special US attention at any point in time. Small nation states cease to exist over time as they cannot grow and their populace either moves to greener pastures or dies out in time.

The US in the end makes a world of one great power and multiple semi-great powers, with the rest of the world beneath these two and set to die out in time. Most of the world's nations never had the unique advantages the US does, or even allies of the US do get. Most of these places have an economic peak which they can never surpass at their size and location in the world. Japan is proof of that.

Conclusion:

India will be the country to truly challenge US hegemony in the end.

The US has been influencing and controlling the direction of the world to ensure that nobody ever rises up that is strong enough to match up against the US on equal footing. China came the closest so far and India will come even closer at its peak. The US has gotten too big to care about small nation states which will die out over time. In the end only the US and semi-powerful nation states will persist as the rest of the world moves to the greater nations for a better life as economies everywhere else reach their peak and stagnate. Almost every single other part of the world outside of the US is guaranteed to have an economic peak that is lower than the US. This ensures that when the world dies out only the US will remain in the end.