BOOK REVIEW
US hegemony slips into history The Future of Global Relations by Terrence Edward Paupp.
Reviewed by John Feffer
The end of the Cold War ushered in a new period of unipolar American power. In
this country, liberals and conservatives alike celebrated the triumph of market
democracies under the leadership of the United States. The Bill Clinton
administration attempted to consolidate America's geoeconomic power. The George
W Bush administration attempted to consolidate America's military and
geopolitical power.
And today, the Barack Obama administration surveys the wreckage of these
efforts to preserve a unipolar world. The global economy is in deep recession
and the United States is drowning under the costs of maintaining its post-Cold
War empire. The
chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan stands testament to the failures of our military
pretensions.
Terence Edward Paupp, in his new book The Future of Global Relations,
traces the downward trajectory of US power and forecasts a very different
future for the international community. In the first half of his book, which
tackles international relations theory as well as real-world examples, Paupp
describes the decline of US hegemony.
The US has persuaded other countries to do its bidding not so much through
naked imperial force as through the indirect application of economic, political
and military force. Our friends and allies, in other words, believe that they
are acting in their own interests when they support the US. Moreover, by
setting the terms of the global economy and by maintaining the largest military
in the world, the US can exert control over countries with which it has only
the barest of relations.
The American hegemon, Paupp argues, has been losing its legitimacy - and thus
its power - for some time. The crisis in casino capitalism, the inability of
the US military to subdue the Taliban in Afghanistan and insurgents in Iraq and
the declining legitimacy of the institutions (International Monetary Fund,
World Trade Organization) through which the US has exerted hegemonic power have
all contributed to a hollowing out of unipolarism (in much the same way that
outsourcing has eroded US manufacturing).
Rising regions are Paupp's key to the future. Regional economic organizations
(such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - ASEAN), regional security
organizations (such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization), hybrid regional
formations (such as the European Union), and regional powers such as China,
India, and Brazil have all challenged Washington's preeminence. "As American
hegemony declines," he writes, "there shall be a corresponding rise in
South-South regional alliances that will constitute, de facto, a new
counter-hegemonic alliance against the US Global Empire."
This is not a new thesis, as Paupp himself admits. The Bandung conference that
launched the Non-Aligned Movement in 1955 and the efforts of the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the 1970s to launch a New
International Economic Order both articulated a future of South-South
cooperation. Two principal factors distinguish the current era, however. For
one, human rights movements around the world have constrained the actions of
rights-abusing states, both within their borders and transnationally. And
second, social movements have become a powerful participant in international
affairs, with efforts like the World Social Forum applying the state-centric
concepts of Bandung and UNCTAD at a grassroots level.
Don't expect an easy transition to this new world of rising regions, Paupp
warns. Hegemons do not enthusiastically give up their privileges. And the
experience of the Non-Aligned Movement, UNCTAD, and even the World Social Forum
suggests that the future may well be just as contentious as the Pax Americana
of the Cold War period.
The Future of Global Relations: Crumbling Walls, Rising Regions by
Terrence Edward Paupp. Palgrave Macmillan (June 23, 2009). ISBN-10: 0230617476.
Price US$100, 304 pages.
John Feffer is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus.
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The US has persuaded other countries to do its bidding not so much through
naked imperial force as through the indirect application of economic, political
and military force. Our friends and allies, in other words, believe that they
are acting in their own interests when they support the US. Moreover, by
setting the terms of the global economy and by maintaining the largest military
in the world, the US can exert control over countries with which it has only
the barest of relations.
