While the influence of the USA cannot be considered imperial — we technically are not an empire — nonetheless, the terms hegemony, leadership, and dominance in the world system are adjectives that apply to ancient Rome and might well apply to us.

Invasions By Barbarian Tribes.  In 410, the Visigoths successfully sacked the city of Rome. The Romans rightly referred to the invaders as barbarians because they lacked the learning, skills, and organizational foundations of Rome. Further, at that point, the barbarians were pagan – they worshipped a pantheon of gods such as Woden, Thor, Frigg, and Balder– whereas Rome had already accepted Christianity as its official religion.

In the USA we now see a collapse at the Southern border.  The seeming bi-partisan fence that was erected in 2006 in retrospect appears to be a sham.  The fence was allowed to fall into disrepair and was inadequate for deterring illegal access.  In 2016, Presidential candidate Donald Trump called out the do-nothing Congress and both the previous Republican and Democrat administrations for allowing this "invasion" of illegals to happen. As part of his Make America Great Again agenda, he proposed and then, after being elected, began to build a wall with accompanying surveillance system that was better than anything that had previously been attempted on our Southern border.