Facts That Matter | UPSC Mains: World History PDF Download

Facts That Matter

• America refers to the United States of America. It covers two continents—the North and the South America, the US is only one of the countries of the continent which is a symbol of US hegemony.
• After the disintegration of USSR in 1991, the first instance of US hegemony came into observation through Operation Desert Storm by the UN during first Gulf War to retreat Iraqi forces from Kuwait. This operation was dominated and won by the US due to vast technological gap between the US military capability and other states.
• William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton, the newly elected President of the US in 1992 and again
• in 1996, focused on soft issues like democracy promotions, climate change and world trade rather than of military power and security. .
• The above mentioned policies of the US were contradicted in response to Yugoslavian action against predominant Albanian population in Kosovo by targeting bombards through Operation Infinite against Al-Qaeda in response to the bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Dar-es-Salaam and Tanzania in 1998.
• On 11 September 2001, nineteen hijackers hailing from a number of Arab countries took control of four commercial aircrafts shortly after take off and crushed into World Trade Centre in New York, Pentagon building in Arlington. Virginia (US Defence Department) and the capital building of the US Congress in Pennysylvania, came to be known as event of 9/11 in the US.
• In response to 9/11, George W. Bush won the elections in the US succeeding Bill Clinton. The US launched Operation Enduring Freedom against all those suspected behind attack in 9/11 mainly Al-Qaeda and Taliban regime.
• The US forces made arrests all over the world, transported and detained the persons in secret prisons like Guantanamo Bay, a US navy base in Cuba where the prisoners did not enjoy the protection of international law or the law of their own country or that of the US. Even the UN representatives were not allowed to meet these persons.
• On 19 March 2003, the US launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to prevent Iraq from developing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the ostensible purpose to control oil fields and installing a regime in Iraq friendly to US.
• Hegemony is an international system with only one centre of power to be gained and retained in the form of military domination, economic political chart and central superiority which was enjoyed only by the US after disintegration of Soviet Union.
• Hegemony as hard power is based on military capabilities of a country and the US has proved it. The US today spends more on its military than the next 12 powers and even technologically no other power can match with the US.
• Hegemony as structural power must sustain global structure in economic sense. The US has provided global public goods as sea lanes of communications (SLOCs) as well as accounts for 15 percent of world trade if EU is included and 20 per cent in world economy. The US has contributed basic economic structure in the form of Bretton Woods System and Degree in MBA.
• Hegemony as soft power implies class ascendency in social, political and ideological spheres which is more effective than coercion to more hand in hand and the US was proved ultimately triumphant in this.
• Though the US has been a hegemonic power, still it experiences some constraints in itself as institutional architecture (division of power). Open nature of American Society and the presence of only one organisation in international system to moderate the exercise of American Power i.e. NATO.
• After the collapse of Soviet Union, India decided to liberalise its economy and integrate it with global economy. Hence the US also found India an attractive economic partner due to technological dimension and the role of Indian-American diaspora.
• India needs an appropriate mix of foreign policy strategies to deal with the US. Either India should maintain aloofness from Washington and comprehend its military power or to establish mutual convergences or to lead a coalition in weaning the hegemony assay from its dominance.
• To deal with the hegemony, all the states bear the different strategies either to extract benefits by operating within hegemonic system or to stay away as far as possible from dominant power i.e. Russia, China and European Union have opted this policy. Both the policies are known as Bandwagon Strategy and to hide respectively.