Hegemon, No more!

Hans Morgenthau in his work ‘  Another Great Debate: The National Interest of the US’ articulates the realities of American foreign policy arguing that the pacifist justifications of US foreign policy are mere rhetoric with political causes grounded in a super powers interest to maintain its hegemony. As an extension to this, he talks about a federal system [either the US system which assumes equality among states or the current global political scenario where there is a super power as sole hegemony] only exists by of the ‘virtue of its superior power that the predominant part can afford to grant the other members of the federal system a measure of equality in the non-political sphere (968)’ and then again how the commonwealth partners are also a compromise simply because the Great Britain could afford to do this. In my opinion, this might not entirely hold true at least in contemporary politics where there might be a presence of a single superior power that shall maintain the federalist status quo but this power is shared to greater extent more than ever before because of the shift in measuring political power in terms of economic power. The disparity in terms of this power sharing still is significant but not to the point where it can be called a ‘measure of equality in the non-political sphere’ for other members of this federation. Now more than ever before, states which have been historically treated as peripheral and political convenience are interested in meaningful political coalitions by the virtue of emerging economic power that they possess and are able to cast a significant impact on super powers foreign policy. India for instance is no more a territory that we once colonized, it is an economic giant asking for some measure of equality in the political sphere as well often in terms of political trade offs and support for each other’s regional superiority. Nonetheless however, it is not to say that this grants any humanitarian validation to super powers past actions or what they continue to do, it’s just to point out that in changing times there is greater emphasis on complex interdependence as opposed to suiting only one’s need.