Oil, Power, and Global Hegemony (original) (raw)
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The Contemporary Era: What's Beyond US Hegemony
In this paper, we will have a close look on the contemporary international system after the end of the two Cold Wars. Are there some countries that still seek hegemonic power? What are the challenges that face them? And most importantly how can we describe the dynamics of the system in the light of structural realism
Hegemony and decline : Reflections on recent American experience
Sens Public, 2005
n recent decades fashionable American foreign policy analysis has oscillated between triumphalism and declinism. By triumphalism-American style-I mean the belief that our increasingly integrated world is « unipolar », that is, oriented to and led by a single political, economic and military superpower-the United States. In other words, triumphalism implies American global hegemony. By declinism-American style-I mean the belief that the United States is politically, economically, militarily and morally « overstretched », to use a term popularized by the Yale historian, Paul Kennedy, overstretched through the exertions of attempting to play the world's hegemon or « hyperpower », to use a word favored here in Paris. The linkage leading from hegemony to decline has certainly been amply studied in recent years. It has been commonplace to speak of a « declinist school » of writers. Numerous studies expatiate on the linkage between hegemony and decline. For a start, there is Paul Kennedy's grand historical argument, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, published in 1987. Decline, he recounts, has been the fate of the would-be hegemon, from Habsburg Spain, to Bourbon and Napoleonic France, to liberal Britain, and perhaps now America. Broadly speaking, the basic reasons are similar in each case. Burdened by heavy military spending and debt, the hegemonic power grows « overstretched ». It neglects and distorts and thereby weakens its economy and society. Ultimately its military strength ebbs as well. I A parallel view can be found in the writings of the noted economic historian, Charles Kindleberger. In numerous writings, perhaps most notably in The World in Depression: 1929-1939, published in 1973, Kindleberger depicts the declining hegemon as a victim of « freeriding ». For Kindleberger, exercising hegemony means providing public goods to the « world system ». Militarily, the hegemon is the ultimate upholder of security-law and order-around the world. Economically, the hegemon is the world's buyer and creditor of last resort-ready and able to step in to halt global capitalism's periodic market crises. As Kindleberger sees it, the benefits of these « public goods » are shared by all, but paid for disproportionately by the hegemon. Inevitably, over time, the free-riding beneficiaries grow relatively stronger while the overtaxed hegemon grows relatively weaker. Eventually the hegemon is no longer powerful enoughrelative to the others-to maintain its old primacy. Its beneficiaries challenge it, further increasing
Trigger of American Hegemony: the origin of the US Hegemony
Auricle Global Society of Education and Research, 2023
This study explores the decline of American hegemony, which dominated the latter half of the 20th century following the United States' emergence as a global leader post-World War II. Despite unprecedented economic prosperity and military dominance, the United States' hegemonic status began to face skepticism in the 1970s due to global recession and disillusionment with American-style liberalism. The 1985 announcement of the US as a debtor nation marked the beginning of a perceived decline in American economic power. Although the 1990s economic boom provided temporary optimism, subsequent economic challenges and the 2008 financial crisis reignited debates about the sustainability of the American-led neoliberal order. This study critically evaluates the ideological foundations of American hegemony and questions the stability of the neoliberal international order that has shaped global governance since the late 20th century.
In an age of increased academic specialization where more and more books about smaller and smaller topics are becoming the norm, this major new series is designed to provide a forum and stimulus for leading scholars to address big issues in world politics in an accessible but original manner.A key aim is to transcend the intellectual and disciplinary boundaries which have so often served to limit rather than enhance our understanding of the modern world. In the best tradition of engaged scholarship, it aims to provide clear new perspectives to help make sense of a world in flux.
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First-generation research in International Political Economy focused considerable attention on the relationship between hegemony and global economic stability. This focus was the result of a confluence of scholarly and policy concerns about the impact that the apparent decline of U.S. hegemony would have on international trade and investment regimes. Interest in this hegemonic stability hypothesis waned, however, as deeper explorations of the theoretical logic indicated that hegemony was not a necessary condition for international economic openness, and as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent “unipolar moment” suggested that American hegemony was hardly in decline.Interest in hegemony resurfaced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis triggered many scholars to proclaim the end of the era of American global hegemony. Scholars argued that the U.S. government’s attachment to a large budget and trade deficits and the resulting growth of foreign debt were lik...
The United States of America – A Declining World Hegemon
In this article the alleged demise of the United States of America (USA) and the ability of its challengers will be discussed and analyzed. Based on George Modelski’s concept of Long-Cycles in Global Politics we can anticipate a disruption in the hegemonic position – currently held by the USA. Considering, the possibility of this scenario, the author executed a pragmatic comparative study and sketches out the chances for the two main competitors – China and India – which struggle mightily with domestic issues and on the other side presents four arguments, why the decline of the USA is not as apparent and looming as partly presumed. The arguments are: (i) the independence supply of natural resources; (ii) its supremacy over the world seas; (iii) reinstated activity in the Rimland and (iiii) control over the Global Commons.
The Future of US Global Power, 2013
Evidence for US primacy used to be less contestable. Financial and strategic support from the US notwithstanding, Europe and Japan required decades to rebound from the devastation of World War II. Their later economic "challenge" eventually would succumb to the US revolution in information and communication technology (ICT), in the one case, and a protracted economic stagnation in the other. While sleeping giants India and China had self-selected out of global capitalism, US-headquartered transnational corporations roamed the world uncontested even as US manufacturing exports boomed. Systemic defects spelled, first, implosion, then dissolution, for the US's main strategic rival, the former Soviet Union. As long as a looming threat from Islamist extremism remained beneath the radar, the Western state-centered international system appeared unassailable. The US seemed to straddle this world like a colossus-militarily, economically, politically and culturally. Yet the world, and the US's position within it, looks rather different today compared to 1950, 1991 and 2001. Do recent shifts in the global system's tectonic plates augur secular decline for the world's preeminent power? The rest of this chapter is organized as follows. To help situate the perspective advanced in this book, the section "The popular literature on 'decline' " provides an overview of today's controversy over US decline. The section "Globalization and global power" discusses the relationship between global power and globalization, and its implications for the nature and scope of US power today. Against this analytical and historical backdrop, the section "Maintaining primacy in a turbulent era" introduces the basic contours of the argument advanced in the book. The section "Structure of the book" concludes with a brief overview of the remaining chapters. The popular literature on US "decline" National "decline" for a preeminent global power refers to a (composite) reduction in economic dynamism, military prowess, political-cumdiplomatic clout and cultural impact. 1 Influencing the argument in this 11