Pretend that you awoke one morning and China was the dominant power in the world
Pretend that you awoke one morning and China was the dominant power in the world. Everyone around the globe was speaking Chinese to some degree, and American foreign policy could not operate independently anymore – the US always had to keep an eye on what might meet with China’s disapproval. Compare that state of affairs with today. Explain what happened and why. How did it happen that China was able to “gain” that hegemonic position.
Commonly, in the IR scholarship, hegemony means an overwhelming preponderance of power – military, economic, political, and cultural. There have been five hegemonic periods in modern history: Spain and Portugal in the 16th century, the Netherlands in the 17th century; Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the US in the 20th and 21st centuries. Each hegemonic period ended with a global war (the Thirty Years’ War, the Wars of Spanish Succession, the Napoleonic Wars, and World Wars I and II).
Provide an example from a current event to illustrate your answer.
Remember to read the materials in Week 2 Contents to Include those ideas in your discussions. (The assigned journal articles are best to use for support.) Also, feel free to include an extra link to a website or article to share with your classmates in follow-ups to support your views.
