After reading the two articles, Whatever Happened to Imperialism and America Didn't Decline. It Went Global, and thinking about it, I believe that in the 21st Century, the international system will be multipolar instead of unipolar. I believe that the world will be composed of a multiplicity of powers, though significantly weaker than one superpower, rather than one hegemon ruling the world.
In the first article Whatever Happened to Imperialism, the author, Tom Engelhardt, stated many important main ideas. Engelhardt believes that there is one single waning superpower, the United States, who is failing to reinforce the imperial system with their military actions. They can't even maintain their own political system properly since their middle class is slowly disappearing while the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. Engelhardt believes that at the moment, there are no rising empires and no states are fighting each other. After the Cold War, United States was obviously the greater power of the two, between Russia. However, as the United States became involved in crises in the Middle East, their power slowly waned. Meanwhile, China might be considered as a rising power since she had been building her regional military as well as improving its environmental problems. However, she is in no mood to take on imperial tasks. On the other hand, Engelhardt believes that there are no states fighting each other because conflicts are no longer where countries send their armies across national boundaries or to distant lands to conquer. In the 21st Century, the number of wars had declined significantly except for the exceptions of the 34-Day War between Israel and Hezbollah and the Iraq War since the 20th Century, when the Korean War, the French and American wars in Vietnam, Indian-Pakistan War, and the Russo-Japanese War took place.
In the second article America Didn't Decline. It Went Global, the author, Sean Starrs, argues that the United States is still the superpower of the world even though they might seem to be. The United States is like the mastermind of everything. Starrs believes that everyone is looking at things through the wrong way. Nowadays, to see which country has more power, people and scholars look at national accounts: GDP, balance of trade, national debt, world share of manufacturing. However, due to globalization, this method does not work anymore. An example giving in the article is where China, being the world's largest electronics exporter, does not mean that all Chinese firms are world leaders of electronics. The United States have a higher percentage of profit shares than all the other nations. So even though China are producing more products and is the leading exporting nation for electronics, the united States is gaining as well through indirect methods. Starrs believes that people are taking national accounts too seriously, thus, underestimating the power of the United States and overestimating the power of China.
After reading both articles, I think I agree with Whatever Happened to Imperialism more. Even though both articles are very convincing, I don't think the world is ruled by one hegemon who sets up the rules and keeps order in the 21st century. A century ago, during the Post-Cold War, the world might be unipolar with the United States being the hegemon. However, according to the first article, the United States is waning. They are failing to reinforce their imperial system and their military actions are not working too. I also believe that with the world being multipolar, it can be similar to a group of people, with their strengths and weaknesses, thus, dominating in the regions where they are dominating and in the end, create balance. Multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems and unipolar systems since great powers can gain power through alliances. Meanwhile, with a unipolar system, nations may detest the one in charge, thus, causing war. People might claim that this is just the beginning of the 21st century, thus, things are yet to be determined but the one and only superpower United States is already waning.
In the first article Whatever Happened to Imperialism, the author, Tom Engelhardt, stated many important main ideas. Engelhardt believes that there is one single waning superpower, the United States, who is failing to reinforce the imperial system with their military actions. They can't even maintain their own political system properly since their middle class is slowly disappearing while the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. Engelhardt believes that at the moment, there are no rising empires and no states are fighting each other. After the Cold War, United States was obviously the greater power of the two, between Russia. However, as the United States became involved in crises in the Middle East, their power slowly waned. Meanwhile, China might be considered as a rising power since she had been building her regional military as well as improving its environmental problems. However, she is in no mood to take on imperial tasks. On the other hand, Engelhardt believes that there are no states fighting each other because conflicts are no longer where countries send their armies across national boundaries or to distant lands to conquer. In the 21st Century, the number of wars had declined significantly except for the exceptions of the 34-Day War between Israel and Hezbollah and the Iraq War since the 20th Century, when the Korean War, the French and American wars in Vietnam, Indian-Pakistan War, and the Russo-Japanese War took place.
In the second article America Didn't Decline. It Went Global, the author, Sean Starrs, argues that the United States is still the superpower of the world even though they might seem to be. The United States is like the mastermind of everything. Starrs believes that everyone is looking at things through the wrong way. Nowadays, to see which country has more power, people and scholars look at national accounts: GDP, balance of trade, national debt, world share of manufacturing. However, due to globalization, this method does not work anymore. An example giving in the article is where China, being the world's largest electronics exporter, does not mean that all Chinese firms are world leaders of electronics. The United States have a higher percentage of profit shares than all the other nations. So even though China are producing more products and is the leading exporting nation for electronics, the united States is gaining as well through indirect methods. Starrs believes that people are taking national accounts too seriously, thus, underestimating the power of the United States and overestimating the power of China.
After reading both articles, I think I agree with Whatever Happened to Imperialism more. Even though both articles are very convincing, I don't think the world is ruled by one hegemon who sets up the rules and keeps order in the 21st century. A century ago, during the Post-Cold War, the world might be unipolar with the United States being the hegemon. However, according to the first article, the United States is waning. They are failing to reinforce their imperial system and their military actions are not working too. I also believe that with the world being multipolar, it can be similar to a group of people, with their strengths and weaknesses, thus, dominating in the regions where they are dominating and in the end, create balance. Multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems and unipolar systems since great powers can gain power through alliances. Meanwhile, with a unipolar system, nations may detest the one in charge, thus, causing war. People might claim that this is just the beginning of the 21st century, thus, things are yet to be determined but the one and only superpower United States is already waning.