Essay about Great Power Hegemony

Mearsheimer’s short article “The cause of great power war” explains the occurrence of major power wars. According to Mearsheimer, power gives rise to three kinds of systems which are known as Bipolarity, Unbalanced Multipolarity, and

Every country since the beginning of time has competed with one another to be the most dominant country with the most power. International power differs a little bit from domestic power. Power in regards to global affairs are tangible and intangible resources that have underlying power relationships. Tangible things would be a powerful army. Some of the intangible things would be allies. There are three types of different relational power aspects. They are commanding change, controlling agendas, and establishing preferences. Commanding change is when you can convince others to change their preferences to better accommodate yours. Controlling agendas is when you make another person's agenda irrelevant and replacing it with your own. Establishing

In this essay, stability is defined as the lack of possibility of collapse of the existing world order or peace. This definition is used as

The struggle for power is very much evident in the world politics and the growing role of United States of America (USA) and China is a clear indication of this. Post- cold war, with the fall of Soviet bloc, USA became the sole superpower. Since then it has left no stone unturned in increasing its influence in world politics. Contrary to the Waltz argument that states will only seek optimum power only to defend themselves, we have seen how US has tried to increase its influence in every nook and corner of the world.

Hegemony is the ability to act in any foreign area one needs to, without significant resistance from rival states (Gaddis at 26). The two hegemonies that America was involved in the twentieth century were controlling part of Germany and all of Japan. America gained the power to rule over them in the Paris Peace treaties following World War II. Germany, whose overseers included multiple countries, including the United States, did not unite again until more than forty years after the World War II (Gaddis at 47). In contrast, America had sole power over Japan. America was able to resurrect Japan’s ruined economy just five years after the war because they focused Japan’s industries on two things, automobile and electronic manufacturing.

Hegemonic internationalism by definition is a paradox within itself. Internationalism suggests cooperation among nations for common good, while hegemony is an instance when one nation has power over another nation. This leads to the belief that hegemonic internationalism is, in reality, one nation pursuing its own national interests at the expense of other nation. Nazi Germany, Iran and the United States are all examples of a nation pursuing hegemonic internationalism.

Ikenberry argues that there are many dilemmas within the organization of the international world order. The liberal order is defined by its openness and its rule based order. Order is maintained in these institutions when states agree to follow the rules set by these institutions. The liberal order has sought to establish its rules in a non-biased system that will not discriminate other states, so that the entire institution can agree on these regulations. However, this has raised many serious dilemmas’. There seems to be concern of how the balance of power operates. Ikenberry argues that the international order has been put into place

Now because of the momentum that the United States was gaining, they were clearly the most fiscally stable, they had the power and capability to enforce rules, and had a commitment to the world to repair the economy. These three attributes are considered absolutely necessary to become a hegemony. A hegemony is defined as a leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others. Competition at this time period was close to non existent because of the economic boom that the golden age of capitalism brought. By being the sole choice due to their global power position (more clearly, their position on the petroleum and competition with the USSR) America helped the introduction of the Hegemony stability theory. This theory states that the global economy of the world would be better off if there was a singular dominant world power. The

At this point in time, the main actors in the international system are nation-states seeking an agenda of their own based on personal gain and national interest. Significantly, the most important actor is the United States, a liberal international economy, appointed its power after the interwar period becoming the dominant economy and in turn attained the position of hegemonic stability in the international system. The reason why the United States is dominating is imbedded in their intrinsic desire to continuously strive for their own national interest both political and economic. Further, there are other nature of actors that are not just nation-states, including non-states or transnational,

In today 's era, if there are politics, there is power. It is no surprise, that is fundamental to politics the concept of power. Power, has a constitutive force that defines the discipline of international relations. Power’s meaning has broadened, and it is now an ‘essentially concept’. The developments in conceptual thinking of power have progressively demanded acceptance of new logical focuses, research, methods, as to what counts as international relations. Thus, arguments over the concept of power has helped broaden the discipline of having power. If we have a broad discipline the benefits could affect international relations making our Nations stronger or more effects. Power can be found throughout relationships between individuals and things.

Jimi Hendrix said “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” Nowadays the world has an imbalance in the maintenance of the peace since each time the disagreements between countries by the obtaining of power are increasing.

The “Balance of Power” was one of the most frequently used words in the international relation; it was the one that relates itself to peace. In another word, if the power becomes unbalanced or destabilized, war will become as unavoidable. However, what exactly is the definition of “balance of power?” According to Dictionary.com, it is “a distribution and opposition of forces among nations such that no single nation is strong enough to assert its will or dominate all the others” ("The Definition of Balance of Power"). So, it can be treated as a policy, one that has a great impact on the power distribution among countries. As such, each country would take their own actions to protect itself from attacks or from being in a disadvantaged situation by maintaining the power equilibrium. To illustrate the importance of “balanced power,” one could recall one of the well-known destructive war-- the First World War, also known as the World War I, has an impartible relation with this “Balance of Power.” World War One, as we know, began in 1914 to 1918 and made its name by the serious consequences it brought. The consequences of World War One had also lead to the World War Two and the cold war. For the major powers involved in this world war, which are —Germany, Great Britain, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. This war started locally in Europe between two countries, but soon things got complicated, and it started to come down to a war that the whole world was involved in. From the

Waltz believes that bipolar systems provide more stability and thus provide a better guarantee of security and peace than multipolar systems. ‘With only two great powers, both can be expected to behave in a way to prolong the system’ (Waltz, 1979). That is because in maintaining the system they are maintaining themselves. According to that view, the Cold War was a period of international stability and peace. (Jackson and Sorensen, 2003)

The Balance of Power is a fiercely debated topic within the realm of international relations. Its true definition has been impossible to pin down and how it manifests itself has been argued over by many academics, in addition to this the idea is divided between the schools of thought that it is a force for preserving peace or a force for tension and war. This essay will look to examine the balance of power using retrospective analysis of historical events, focusing on the lead up to and the outbreak of WWI and its conclusion and the Cold war. Through this it can be hoped to find a clearer definition of the balance of power, whether it is really a balance analogous to a set of scales and whether the balance of power is a way of preserving peace and stability or whether it is on the whole, better termed as the balance of war, creating only tension and instability.

World War I saw the nations involved rallied into two major alliances in order to curb German’s increasing power. It is evident that German amassing too much power poses a threat to the security of its counterparts in an anarchic system. As a result, other countries were willing to use various means not only to mitigate the risks but also maintain their independence in the world’s political structure. The balance of power theory focuses on how countries can achieve a balance and international order. The causes of World War one can be attributed to the balance of power mechanisms used by the countries involved.