For a good amount of history, the United States has established itself as a great power time and time again. First through a balance of power, then after the Cold War the US was the only great power standing creating a unipolar system. However the hegemon is starting to lose control and stability as states like China, attempt to compete with the US, and other states, in the Middle East, Russia, and Europe, continue to go down the road of instability. Depending on which school of thought, there are different ways in with the international system can achieve stability or cause disorder. Realists believe the world revolves around the constant struggle for power between states. More specifically, structural realism believes that balancing power …show more content…
States can either internally balancing by building up their military or externally by creating alliances with other states that are aimed toward their rivals. According to the balance of threat theory, states generally balance against threats, although the weaker states are more likely to bandwagon with the rising threat. (Kissinger)
Other realist argue that instead of balancing power between great powers, the concentration of power in the hands of one hegemonic power would be more stable. Hegemonic realism also believes in building imperial political orders on a hierarchy and not a balance of power. One way the strongest state, the hegemon, can provide more stability by providing vital resources to the international community that weaker states are not willing or able to provide. After the Cold War, the US was the only great power that survived and became a unipolar actor internationally. The unipolarity gave the US a unique advantage of stability initially because states were no longer willing to counter balance the great power. After a certain level of concentration of power, it became too costly and no state wanted to be the one to initiate the balancing. The norms during this time were also in favor of US and solidified their position as a great power.
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Economic interdependence, or globalization, can produce agreements on certain norms and will lead to more peaceful outcomes. Global markets as well as international institutions compel states to cooperate. By participating in institutions, states are given the opportunity to facilitate rules and norms and bring adversaries together without the use of force. Liberals also believe that powerful states should act with restraint when using their power and find ways to show their commitments to other states.
After World War II, during the Cold War, the United States started acting more multilaterally by forming treaties and joining groups such as NATO and the UN (Gaddis 67). This was all in an attempt to stop the spread of communism and combat the influence of the Soviet Union. The United States intervened in countries to deter them from becoming communist. They
Doyle explains that the fears and egos of non-liberal rulers can easily lead them towards war. These same fears and egos can be checked by a liberal republican state structure. Should a liberal state notice this aggression and fear within a foreign state, and if the foreign state is becoming too powerful and threatens its existence, then there may be cause for the liberal state to make a preventive strike against the threatening non-liberal nation. Preventive wars are commonly thought of as a product of Hegemonic Stability Theory.
America has embraced unilateralism in its leadership and the foreign policy. Even after the end of soviet threats, the US did not stop using the principle. America is a superpower and the de facto privilege the nation to use unilateralism. Both Clinton and Bush administrations promoted unilateralism through their leadership styles. The decisions made by President Clinton to use military forces on to suppress the Balkans relied on the notion that Americans are threatened under different circumstances in various parts of the world.
America has been viewed in a wide variety of ways on the global stage. From the Progressive Era to containment, the view of the United States as a world power has changed dramatically. The country went through a large process of adopting an isolationist policy during the Progressive Era. This isolationist view was also present pre and post-World War I. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America took a bold stance and using its industrial power pushed itself to the top of the world superpowers with its peak being the first country to develop a nuclear bomb. The United States went from being a country focused primarily on the home front to a country that would take the spotlight at the top of the
America has a lot of attributing factors that will keep up on the power shift. I think as we progress we will continue to be on the top end of countries with power control in regards to Globalization. The East does have some factors that keeps it a key player, but we can play just a hard and will continue to do
Individuals play a huge role in international politics and affairs. Even though it is portrayed different by realists, liberals, constructivists, and radicals they do contain some similarities. Each of these theories reflect ideas that explain how the international system works. Most of these theories are based on the idea that states always act in accordance with their national interest or the interest of that state. Most often states have the same national interest whether it is in self-preservation, military security, economic prosperity, etc. These theories explain the important factors to their interest.Realists believe that the only certainty in this world is power. A state with power will be able to outdo or overcome any other competitors.
Although the United States remains the world’s lone superpower, it is no longer a hyperpower that can bully potential contenders. The rest of the world is catching up. A change from unipolarity to multipolarity is one could facilitate a return nations struggling for power and prestige through war. While some might say a return to this system could destroy todays relative peace amongst great powers, they are incorrect. A return to multipolarity could show us that several emerging powers will emerge to join the United States as powers within the international system. It does not tell us how multipolarity will effect international governance. The question is whether emerging powers accept or resist the western order that will exist when they
When it comes to the topic of the distribution of power in international arena, there is one state that cannot be left behind in any debate. The US has been considered as a global hegemon since the end of the Cold War, but more recently there has been no clear vision about its role in transformation of current international system. Although, other great powers tend to pick up pace in gaining strength in some dimension, the US status of the strongest superpower that dominates the global governance can be backed up with its economic and military capacity as well as its geopolitical influence.
Although much debate surrounds the United States’ classification as an empire, there is no doubt or argument saying that the U.S.’s involvement in global affairs has changed the world, whether that is a positive or negative outcome will be left for another day. In this paper, the US shall be regarded as an empire because of its past and present actions in the global viewpoint. American dominance in the global view of the world can be traced back to the end of the Second World War, when they surpassed the United Kingdom as the world’s superpower, although many British people did not accept it at the time. It was at this time that the U.S. began to fight proxy wars to contain the threat of Communism, which just ended up undermining American
Through the course of history, America has expanded its influence to a number of countries and regions, which turned America into the world power it is. America has not only become an independent country from England, but has now become a national police force in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. America has made itself known around the world and put their influence on many regions all at the same time as growing to a world power. The United States, and much of the world today, would not be the way it is today if American had not started bringing their influence to an international level in the late 19th and early 20th century. This was all a result of the American Civil War.
After the Berlin Wall was pulled down and the Soviet bloc collapsed, the United States remained the sole superpower in the world. With its unparalleled military strength, economic clout and social influence, it has continued to dominate the world, reiterated American exceptionalism, and punished any person or country that crossed its path. Syria and Ukraine are the latest examples.
Realism is a dominant theory of international relations focuses on state 's security and power primarily. Besides, states are considered the only unitary rational actors where its survival and interests is the cornerstone of interstates relation highly based on might rather than on right. Hence, realists believe that people are by nature sinful and instinctively seeking power to dominant others. Power will be everlasting in the human 's nature and the possibility to be eradicated is a utopian aspiration (Kegley, 1993). On the other hand, Liberalism as a dominant theory of international relations emphasizes peaceful interstates relations where the preference of states goes beyond politics to economic and social interaction to achieve a harmonious environment and reducing war conflicts. Basically, the liberals underline that states are not unitary actors and non-states actors are significant to take a part in the realm since states are not rational and all actors will function better together. Additionally, power and security dilemma is a secondary objective.
International relations theory is a set of ideas that explains how the international system works. Unlike an ideology, a theory of international relations is backed up with concrete evidence. Some of the characters in Dr. Strangelove represents two of major theories of international relations: realism and liberalism,. Realism is defined as states struggle for power and to maximize their national interest. Realism also stresses seeing the world as it really is rather than how they would like it to be. According to realism, states work only to increase their own power in relations to that of other states. Realism characteristic includes and are not limited to:
The two main components of this theory are firstly recognizing that a liberal world economy is in constant danger of being destroyed by rising nationalism and protectionism. Therefore, a set of rules are needed for economic competition, especially free trade. Secondly, a hegemonic power is more likely to be both willing and able to establish and enforce such rules. This is because as a hegemon the stability of the world is key to ensure its own long-term interests (Heywood, 2011). Realism is a school of thought that have related theories of international relations that emphasises the role of the state, its national interest and military power. Realism has been the dominant school of thought when it comes to international relations since the end of World War II. It compromises of several different strands, the most known are classical realism and neorealism (Bell, 2017). A good example that strengthens the hegemonic stability theory is the US. The United States is a superpower and its power lies in its resources such as military and economic power. These resources enable them to help other states, especially considering economy, and the US sees this as their duty as a hegemony. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by
To begin, liberalist believe social institutions like IGO’s and NGO’s help keep open lines of communication between states in order to maintain peace and keep order. Wilkinson believes social institutions like the UN can be extremely helpful to solve disputes between states. Although, there are super powerful states that have a great amount of power, influence, and military, in some occasions it is not enough and social institutions like the UN need to intervene to