After the Second World War, the US emerged as a hegemonic power in world affairs. And with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US entered into a unipolar moment, characterized by increased unilateralism. US multilateralism had always been highly conditional, valued instrumentally to achieve other national interests. But the rise of competing powers in the form of China and BRICS states has been perceived as threatening the ability of the US to successfully carry out unilateral foreign policy without political costs. Recent developments in the international political economy have created an increasingly competitive environment with challenges to US hegemony from China’s Belt and Road initiative and BRICS. Meanwhile Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine has exposed fundamental disagreements between the international community on critical matters of security. This paper considers these challenges to American unipolarity and their political evolution and investigates what the motivations are for current US policy to supposedly counter those challenges. It considers the rhetoric deployed to justify state policy and compares it to political realities, informed by subject matter knowledge of Russian politics and international relations. Realists have argued that the current challenges to US power are consequence of "liberal hegemony," a foreign policy ideology they identify with nation-building and supposed democracy promotion. This paper, in evaluating US foreign policy logic and justification, will also review that realist thesis and its counterpart, liberal internationalism.