Tag: Hegemony

American Hegemony

I guess the best place to start is to define the word ‘hegemony’ for those not sure of what it actually means…..

Hegemony comes from the Greek word hēgemonía, which means leadership and rule. In international relations, hegemony refers to the ability of an actor with overwhelming capability to shape the international system through both coercive and non-coercive means. Usually this actor is understood to be a single state, such as Great Britain in the 19th century or the United States in the 20th and 21st century. However, it could also refer to the dominance of a cohesive political community with external decision-making power, such as the European Union. Hegemony is distinct from Empire because a hegemonic power rules by influencing other states rather than by controlling them or their territory. Unipolarity refers to the distribution of military capabilities, whereas hegemony also refers to economic, social, and cultural power. The literature on hegemony tries to explain the United States’ role in the international system as a function of its privileged position within the system. Some scholars also see hegemony as an institutionalized coalition of powerful and wealthy states. Central questions to the debate are whether a hegemonic actor is well placed to shape the system, what strategies hegemonic powers use to define the system, if there are particular costs and benefits associated with exercising hegemonic influence, if other states gain or lose from hegemony, and under what conditions hegemonic powers endure.

With that in the rear-view mirror….let us continue…..

The US has been the main mover and shaker on the international scene since WW2 and the start of the “Red Menace”…..but recently that influence is starting to wane.

American hegemony is now on life support. Intensive care specialists are still scurrying about trying to resuscitate the patient. Family and friends are saying he’s still putting up a fight. However, the undertakers of this dying order have already arrived, and are standing just outside the door: one is named Russia, and the other China. When the obituary is read we will learn that the deceased is survived by an older cousin representing a different order – balance of power realism.

As John Mearsheimer observed, the unipolar moment after the fall of the former Soviet Union was an absolutely unique period of history. At that moment, and for the next 30 years, America was the only superpower left standing. Francis Fukuyama’s vision of democratizing the world proved to be an irresistible temptation for Western foreign policy elites. So, the evangelists of this new world order set out to spread democracy throughout Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

They used the existing architecture of cold war institutions like the UN, NATO, the EC, the WB, IMF, and WTO to spread liberal values, and to “addict people to capitalism.” Blinded by their own idealism, they couldn’t imagine anyone would reject such a generous offer. After all, as President George W. Bush often boasted, “Freedom is in the heart of every individual.” In other words, given the opportunity everyone would naturally choose to be free. Of course, this idea is an echo from President Wilson’s dictum, “The world must be made safe for democracy [emphasis mine].”

American Hegemony and the Politics of Provocation

After WW2 the US and its allies wanted the world to be based on the ‘rule of law’….but since those ‘glory days’ the US has moved further and further away from that high and noble goal.

The piece begins with a brief recitation of the origins and importance of self-determination and state sovereignty to the international system. This is immediately followed by a claim on behalf of the “coalition of democracies” to a right to violate these principles more or less at will.

This coalition, Spencer-Churchill writes, has “legally and morally valid justifications for intervention in a foreign country” first, “when there is a dire security threat that emerges within its sphere of influence” and second, “because liberal democracies have an unprecedented understanding of the world population’s aspirations for human rights-based rule of law and innovation-based prosperity for middle-income countries.” The policies of liberal democracies, he asserts “are moving in concert with the broader direction of history.” The citation for this last statement is a link to a brief summary of Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History.”

Why US hegemony is incompatible with a ‘rules-based international order’

How will this slide in principles end?

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“lego ergo scribo”

Is White Hegemony In Decline?

First that word–Hegemony.

According to Oxford Bibliographies, “hegemony comes from the Greek word hēgemonía, which means leadership and rule. In international relations, hegemony refers to the ability of an actor with overwhelming capability to shape the international system through both coercive and non-coercive means” (Norrlof, 2015). The Oxford English Dictionary defines hegemony in the following manner: “leadership, predominance, preponderance; especially the leadership or predominant authority of one state of a confederacy or union over others.”

For decades there has been a fear of the white domination of society was being slowly eroded away…..and the last census is proving that fear warranted….

William Frey, of the Brookings Institute, reports, “Yet most notable is the small decline in white population — the first in any census since 1790. During much of the nation’s history, white population growth mirrored the national growth rate, including a substantial slowdown during the Great Depression.”  He adds, “Yet, since the 1970s, white population growth has shown continued declines — plummeting to just 1.2% in 2000 to 2010 and now to a -2.6% loss (or over 5 million people) for the 2010s.”  And he notes, “Fewer births and more deaths resulted in a natural decrease (more deaths than births) for the 2010s decade, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Frey goes further noting two parallel develops that compound the overall demographic shift.  “All of the nation’s 2010-to-2020 growth is attributable to people of color—those identifying as Latino or Hispanic, Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Native American, and as two or more races,” he finds. Adding, “Together, these groups now comprise more than 40% of the U.S. population.”  In addition, “Between 2010 and 2020, the nation’s under-age-18 population registered an absolute decline of more than 1 million.  …. As a result, white Americans now comprise less than half of the nation’s under-age-18 population.”

The End of White Hegemony?

This fear has been driving conservative agenda for decades…..that lead to the unrealistic immigration policies of the recent past…..and during the reign of Trump all this angst came to a head….and continues today….

But not to worry Texans (go figure) have been called to defend the white demographics.

Charlie Kirk has been accused of having “a fraught relationship with facts,” and spreading conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods while being the founder and head of the right wing activist group Turning Point USA.

TPUSA may be best known for its now-former communications director who touted Hitler to defend the term “nationalism,” declaring that the “problem” with the genocidal Nazi responsible for the slaughter of up to 17 million people around the world was that he wanted to expand his reach beyond Germany: “if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize.”

…

Here’s Kirk declaring that Texas must “deputize” its citizens, and place them on the border to protect “white demographics in America” to fend off “the invasion.”

“Texas, whether they like it or not, are front and center smack dab in the middle of the great question of our time, which is who runs the country?” Kirk said Thursday on his radio show, as Media Matters reports, before he began to attack President Joe Biden.

“What do you do when you start to have a apathetic tyrant – no, apathetic when it comes to immigration law but very engaged when it comes to forcing vaccinations – what do you do?” Kirk asked. “Deputize a citizen force, put them on the border, give them handcuffs, get it done. Sure that’s dramatic. You know what’s dramatic? The invasion of the country.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/charlie-kirk-2655088157/

Time for the people of this country to realize that we ALL are children of immigrants….the so-called Christian Right should lead this push but instead are the very ones adding fuel to the hatred fires raging in our society.

This saga will continue for decades to come…..

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“lego ergo scribo”