...community, Hegemony is formed. Between the periods of 600 to 1450 CE, one nation to entirely dominate the globe was impossible for due to the distance issues, and they did not have the resources and the ability to communicate to support empires to maintain their conquered lands and people. Such empires like, Mongol Empire and Islamic caliphates' inability to control their large territories caused the empires to fall. Therefore, due to the obstacles the empires faced, an empire with great power could best occupy a strong regional hegemony during this time period. China was the nation with the most powerful...
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...Nikolas Does the USA still remain a global hegemon? Hegemony is the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others. This power is based on the countries structural position which enables the hegemon to shape the actions and influence other states by using soft power (Soft power is the ability to shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction via politics, culture and foreign policies) more often than not rather than hard power (Hard power is the use of military and economic means to influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies aggressively) and use of force. The US is commonly known as a superpower or ‘hegemon’ though this idea has been challenged by both external and internal factors like the economic prowess of other countries like China who’s rise has been astonishing and are projected to overtake the USA by 2030 as the greatest financial power. If judged in military terms then the USA appears to remain dominant, their lead over the rest of the world is huge. In 2011, the US accounted for 42% of the world’s military spending and had a x5 fold lead over China, the second largest military spender. The US has around 700 military bases around the world as well as an unequivocal lead in high tech weaponry that can intervene militarily in any part of the world and sustain multiple operations like in Afghanistan and Iraq. Though, their power in military terms could be rendered redundant due to their lack...
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...Kyuwon Kyung A97020738 Professor Magana Poli 113A Date Explain magnetic hegemony When a civilization depicts to extend its cultural, social, economic, and political influence over other nations within the international community, Hegemony is formed. Between the periods of 600 to 1450 CE, one nation to entirely dominate the globe was impossible for due to the distance issues, and they did not have the resources and the ability to communicate to support empires to maintain their conquered lands and people. Such empires like, Mongol Empire and Islamic caliphates' inability to control their large territories caused the empires to fall. Therefore, due to the obstacles the empires faced, an empire with great power could best occupy a strong regional hegemony during this time period. China was the nation with the most powerful and wealthy empire of them all which this nation extended its regime over most of Asia. As Professor Magana mentioned during his lecture, magnetic hegemony “is the East Asian theory’s underlying idea of practice of International Relations” (Professor...
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...major superstructural “levels”: the one that can be called “civil society”, that is the ensemble of organisms commonly called “private”, and that of “political society” or “the State”. These two levels correspond on the one hand to the function of “hegemony” which the dominant group exercises throughout society and on the other hand to that of “direct domination” or command exercised through the State and “judicial” government. The functions in question are precisely organisational and connective. The intellectuals are the dominant group’s “deputies” exercising the subaltern functions of social hegemony and political government.” →Antonio Gramsci From Gramsci’s prison note books Introduction Hegemony is a concept that has been used to describe and explain the dominance of one social group over another, such that the ruling group or hegemon acquires some degree of consent from the subordinate, as opposed to dominance purely by force. It is used broadly to mean any kind of dominance, and narrowly to refer to specifically cultural and non-military dominance, as opposed to the related notions of empire and suzerainty Gramsci and Hegemony The idea of a ‘third face of power’, or ‘invisible power’ has its roots partly, in Marxist thinking about the pervasive power of ideology, values and beliefs in reproducing class relations and concealing contradictions. Marx recognised that economic...
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...Hegemony Hegemony was a concept developed from Karl Marx’s ideas by the Italian neo-Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). Marx had originally argued that the capitalist society would become ever more polarized between working class and the ruling class, however during the 20th Century neo-Marxists realised that this was not happening and it soon became evident that society was becoming more complex rather than polarized and in fact there was now more classes and intermediate groups within society than before so neo-Marxists began to rethink how capitalist societies functioned. Gramsci was a key thinker in the debate about class and power and developed the concept of ‘Hegemony’ in his famous Prison Notebooks after being imprisoned by Mussolini’s fascist government, for being a leader in the Italian Communist party. Gramsci’s idea of the concept of Hegemony has come to be central when discussing sociologically the complexity of the modern society. Gramsci’s concept of Hegemony is the way in which ‘one class dominates another through consent rather than force.’(Macionis & Plummer, 1997) For Gramsci the state equals political society and civil society. He stated that the ruling class must gain the consent of the working class and that no government could rule by force alone for very long. He believed that there was a process where in which a dominant group wins over a subordinated/ less dominant group through its ideas, forming political alliances with other groups...
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...America’s Aggressive Economic Hegemony American Expansionism during the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century is a result of America’s economic necessity as a growing country. Through this economic conquest, America was led to the forefront of the world stage in the process. America’s idea of Manifest Destiny, first coined by John O’Sullivan in 1845, was used as their catalyst to spur expansion of the United States territory and its trade to all parts of the globe. Through America’s first conflict with Spain in the Seminole War they were allowed to take over Florida, starting its progress onto the world stage. America’s victory in one of its first foreign affairs on foreign soil in the Mexican-American War further led to this rise on the world stage. After the success of the Mexican-American War, America turned to Hawaii and East Asia and continued their economic pursuits there through movements such as the Tyler Doctrine and the Treaty of Kanagawa. President James Monroe was keen on removing Spain from Florida in 1818 and gave General Andrew Jackson orders to quell the Seminole rebellion in any manner he saw fit. By doing so, America would have leverage over Spain in negotiations. While this message was misinterpreted, the aftermath favored the United States on the grounds that “Spain’s inability to maintain order compelled United States to do so.” The removal of Indians, obtaining more territories and delaying of British intervention was justified through the idea of...
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...Emma Wareus International Relations Theories 3/13/2016 Marxist theory: War on Terror Marxist theories of international politics are commonly dismissed out of hand as being outdated, preoccupied with economics rather than politics, and concerning itself more with domestic rather than international social relations. Viewed from the perspective of Marxism however, both liberalism and realism are profoundly limited, for each takes as its premise a world of pre-constituted social actors (whether self-interested individuals or security-seeking states). These theories are therefore unable to consider the social processes through which these kinds of actors have been historically constructed. Thus in analyzing the so-called war on terror, Marxism forces us to understand the development of the structures of global capitalism and the ideologies and agents situated within these structures. This essay therefore evaluates whether Marxist theories of international politics offer convincing explanations of the war on terror. I start with the Marxist understanding of capitalism as a historically particular way of organizing social life that entails political, cultural and economic aspects that need to be understood as a dynamic ensemble of social relations not necessarily contained within the territorial boundaries of nation states. I then apply this understanding to frame the war on terror through the context of economic security which has animated US policy-makers from the Second World...
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... Essay Topic: Sharing Power? Prospects for a U.S. Concert-Balance Strategy Date: 12 January 2015 Name: Angela Butts, LTC, USAR Dr. Patrick Porter is an Australian academic at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. Dr. Porter published a monograph entailing a well reasoned argument on a power-sharing grand strategy based upon concert of power and balance of power systems. According Dr. Porter, these are the strategies that will cause the U.S. to no longer be hegemonic and maintain its powerful influence and status in the global system. I agree with Dr. Porter that the United States (U.S.) should employ these strategies in the future decades. However, I disagree that this is due to losing America’s global hegemony. The lost of hegemony would cause instability within the global system. In the future, I think the U.S. will move towards these strategies in order to produce stability while trying to maintain global leadership. Contrary, the focus could shift for the U.S. to build a “multi-partner” system for governments and nongovernment groups to work together on global issues. This is the goal of the Obama Administration in an effort to reduce competition and have closer ties to the major global powers. There are limited options for other countries to take over as a global hegemon. Unlike other countries, India may be the closest to becoming the next hegemon of the global system; however, it is not ready based on its structural problems and military capabilities...
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...Semiotics, a concept developed by Ferdinand de Saussaure is a useful tool for analysing advertisements. However, Hodge and Kress (year and page number) recommended that semiotic analysis could also be used as a manner of understanding communication, including media texts. The essence of semiotics is ‘the science of signs, or the study of signs and sign systems’ (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2009:133). Media images often emphasize hegemonic representations of gender, race and class in the South African context, and in this specific advertisement BIC reinforced an ideology regarding the manner woman should portray themselves. Using semiotics, I will be deconstructing the advertisement and will argue, through drawing on xy’s concept of racial hegemony, that BIC created an advertisement that reinforces gemonic notions of race, class and gender. . ‘The denotative meaning of an advertisement is the most basic component. This is the most obvious meaning of a sign which can be expressed by describing what is directly seen.’ (Gottdiener, 1995:15) In the BIC advertisement, there is a woman that looks approximately 30 years old. Regarding racial classification, this woman is considered black. She is neatly dressed in business/ formal attire consisting of a white-collared shirt and grey blazer. She is looking directly into the camera while smiling broadly. Her body is not facing directly toward the viewer, but rather slightly slanted, drawing more attention to her face. The background is...
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...factors such as ideology that shape human identity and act subconsciously over an individual. Ideology is the system of meaning that helps explain, define and make value judgments about the world (Croteau & Hoynes 2014, p. 152). As we live in an interconnected world there are many ideologies as there are social structures in any given society. Related to this is that dominant ideas are hegemonic. Marx created the superstructure, which is the domain of ideas for example religion, legal structures, family, institutions and these are influenced by the interests of the economically dominating classes in society. For Gramsci, ideological hegemony is a mechanism for the ruling/dominating class to maintain its power, either via force or consent or a combination of both (Croteau & Hoynes 2014, p. 158). Thus the level of ideological hegemony would vary between societies and countries. In places like Australia,...
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...inimical to the national interest. The state is the most important actor under realism. It is unitary and autonomous because it speaks and acts with one voice. The power of the state is understood in terms of its military capabilities. A key concept under realism is the international distribution of power referred to as system polarity. Polarity refers to the number of blocs of states that exert power in an international system. A multipolar system is composed of three or more blocs, a bipolar system is composed of two blocs, and a unipolar system is dominated by a single power or hegemon. Under unipolarity realism predicts that states will band together to oppose the hegemon and restore a balance of power. Although all states seek hegemony under realism as...
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...Character of the 21st Century Name: Institution: Date: Introduction The character of the 21st Century from a political, economic and social perspective would be chaotic. It should be appreciated that the world has gotten to a point of political, economic and social consciousness that puts pressure between the governed and the governors. From a social contract point of view, it is arguably correct to assert that the realisation of the social contract nobles would be effected. However, this process is expected to be chaotic, painful, and gruelling and time consuming. Three main reasons that give this realisation a chaotic character can be cited as inclusive of the following; a politically, economically and socially conscious society, a government system and power structure determined to retain the status quo and lastly a heightened application of information technology gains and innovation to the extent that mass media as a source of power control becomes inevitable. This paper would explain the three reasons and discuss comprehensively their position and role in the overall progress of the society. The political, social and economic consciousness can be seen in the aggressive nature of the modern society. All over across the globe, citizens continue to show a renewed resilience and determination to realise their rights, freedoms and expectations from society. The concept of legitimate expectation from a legal point of view as been greatly heighted. Citizens have become...
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...capability and are thus capable of using force against other states 3) no state can be certain another state will not use force against it 4) survival, territorial integrity, and domestic autonomy are the primal goals of all states and 5) great powers are rational actors (Mearsheimer 2001, pp. 30-31). It is difficult to definitively discern what conclusions Mearsheimer thinks follow from these premises (Wagner 2007, pg. 14). He argues for perhaps three conclusions: 1) great powers have powerful incentives to “think and act offensively with regard to each other…In particular, three general patterns of behavior result: fear, self-help, and power maximization (Mearsheimer 2001, pg.32)” 2) even states that want only to survive end up pursuing hegemony as the ultimate insurance for survival 3) even states that care only about their survival may end up in war. These conclusions constitute what Mearsheimer calls the tragedy of international politics (Mearsheimer 2001, pp. 1-3). This tragedy is embodied in what Mearsheimer describes as the “security dilemma.” The security dilemma stipulates that “the measures a state takes to increase its own security usually decreases the security of other states. Thus, it is difficult for a state to...
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...Despite the necessity of different states working together in order to make the modern world function, there have been many instances where one country has had almost a totalitarian power over the rest of the world. Wallerstein describes this as a hegemon, and states that these nations, specifically the United States for a period of time, “[dominated] the world economy” and were able to “get their way politically.” Colonialism definitely explains the ways in which hegemony, and the “white race’s superiority” was a prevalent issue at the time, and a great example to show this is the idea of the ‘White Man’s Burden.’ The United States, that was defined as a hegemon, colonized indigenous land and saw it as the white man’s burden to civilize the...
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...Introduction The period between 1870 and 1913 has often been referred to as Mach-1, in reference to the speed of economic growth that it presented. This was a period of peace especially when its compared to what came soon after. Under the Hegemonic leadership of Great Britain, Trade and the movement of people with and within Europe grew at rates that were then unprecedented. All these gains crumbled just before the start of the Great War of 1914. For the next thirty years attempts were made to bring the world economy to its glory years without any success. At this point, nation states had retreated back to protectionism and a wave of national identity and anger of one state against another was sweeping across Europe. State debts, the just ended war, Fascism, Nazism and other various anti-International economic policies and philosophies made it difficult for cooperation amongst states. Cooperation and success was not realized until another undisputed economic power (United sates of America) rose to the occasion in the summer of 1944, to plan and re-arrange the post war economic order. If we were to follow the same naming style as the above mentioned, then this period would in turn be termed Mach-2. Once again the world united under a new Hegemonic leadership. Just as in the previous hegemon, Markets began to recover the good practices of the classical economic system were adopted and the lessons learnt in the thirty years of economic turmoil since the first world war were also...
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