Hegemony In The Current World Order Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hegemony In The Current World Order - Essay Example According to the Marxist philosophy, hegemony embodies manipulation instincts that adopts a superior dictum of not only the cultural belief system, values and perceptions, but also imposes a particular worldview as a universal ideology that justifies a socio-political and economic course as natural, inevitable, perpetual and more so beneficial to all (Bullock and Trombley, 1999, pp. 387-88). In other words, hegemony is a process that inculcates ideals of the hegemon into the undertaking of the subordinates via the social channels such as educational publications, advertising, and, if need be, through mobilization to subdue any possible opposition. In the 21st century, economic liberalism–the belief in globalization and the relative effectiveness of private enterprises are certainly well-orchestrated ideals of capitalism that have fought communism right into oblivion. Equally prominent alongside the above capitalistic ideals are the standards of western civilization that compri ses of the greater awareness of human rights and a heightened cognizance of the moral responsibility as the bedrock of accountable governance. Hegemony as a concept frequently features in scholarly analysis of power relations in international politics, particularly how a dominant power [state] ought to deal with a second tier states rapidly growing influence in the international arena and the subsequent antagonistic hegemonic ambitions that ensue thereof. There is a wide consensus among theorists of international relations (IR) that such scenarios necessitate the formation of alliances in order to neutralize [balance] any possible stronger wave-challenges from the seemingly ambitious state(s), protect the existing status quo control of a dominant power, and so to the survival of the second tier powers that may feel threatened by the new power game. Kenneth Waltz argues that in an international system with no overarching government that is strong enough to enforce laws, balancing is often the immediate remedy induced by the system (1979, pp. 125–6).