REGIMES AND LIBERAL WORLD ORDERS

In: Alternatives: global, local, political, Band 13, Heft 1, S. 5-26

Abstract

THEORIES THAT SET OUT TO DESCRIBE THE STRUCTURE AND EXPLAIN THE OPERATION OF THE MODERN WORLD ORDER ARE OFTEN UNCLEAR AND INCOMPLETE BECAUSE OF CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS IN DEFINING THE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE AND THE NATURE OF THE ACTORS WHOSE RELATIONSHIPS CONSTITUTE IT. THE TERM MOST FREQUENTLY USED TO DESCRIBE THIS SYSTEM IS HEGEMONY, YET DESCRIPTIONS OF HEGEMONY AND HOW IT OPERATES TEND TO LOAD THE CONCEPT WITH IMAGES ARISING FROM MULTIPLE PATTERNS OF SYSTEM DOMINANCE BY ONE STATE, CAUSING IT TO EXPLAIN BOTH MORE AND LESS THAN A GIVEN EMPIRICAL SITUATION MIGHT WARRANT. AS A RESULT OF OVERGENERALIZATION AND THE OMISSION OR, AT BEST, SURFACE EXAMINATION, OF IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF MODERN HEGEMONY, THESE THEORIES ARE LESS USEFUL TO POLICY-MAKERS IN TODAY'S HEGEMON, THE UNITED STATES, THAN THEY MIGHT BE. THIS ARTICLE IS AN ATTEMPT TO EXPAND AND CLARIFY THE CONCEPTS OF HEGEMONY, EMPIRE, AND REGIME, IN THE SPECIFIC CONTEXT OF LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDERS AND THEN TO USE THESE CONCEPTS TO ANALYZE THE STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF THE POST-SECOND WORLD WAR HEGEMONIC SYSTEM.