The
book written by John.H, Mershiemer “tragedy of the great power politics"
tries explain the behavior of the states in international
system. Though not ideal but realistic picture of the international arena is
being portrayed in the reading. While considering the loop wholes of
the theory in terms of hindsight and past as being not a good predictor of
future; Mershiemer predicts the behavior of the states to make sense of events
in international arena.
Mearsheimer
through past events of world wars and cold war’s states that strong states
aspire to become hegemon and not just powerful dominant states. Why do they aspire
that way? Because they want their
ultimate survival, which under "offensive realism" is explained as
becoming the most powerful state to determine the behaviour of their states.
Determine the behaviour of other states in terms of dictation and
not as a reaction to the dominant states. Until and unless a
state is hegemony, the state sovereignty is under threat because
another dominant rival can still put a threat any way. This has however
been explained in the past in the context of cold war between United
States and Soviet Union.
These powerful state
not only aspire to be hegemonic but also try to restrict the other emerging
nation posing threat the powerful state. The ideal example to be refereed in
this case china's state in relation to the United States. Many theorist say
that china will not have interest in global hegemony but others and Mearshiemer
states that the economic power will ultimately dictate the military power of
china in near future. We see that the flash point of U.S -china relation cannot
really be the issue of Taiwan but why do U.S fear from china? This
is because of the rising power of china which might in economic terms overthrow
U.S in near future considering the past growth rates. According to recent study
on "Business insider" china has already increased the military budget
by 10% from the previous year’s budget. This has somewhat alarmed U.S and
therefore they have also started modernizing their nuclear arsenal over a
decade by spending 350 billion$.
Offensive
realism by Mearshieme is a good paper which
highlights the current scenario in the world by taking past into consideration.
~UZAIR MUJEEB
I think the US/China rivalry is the most relevant example in today's world as well. Mearsheimer also puts a lot of work on it. Clearly he proposes that to be the hegemon, the US needs to encircle China and alienate it somehow. But still wonder with the level of economic dependency between the two states, will it wise or not.
ReplyDeleteYour post accurately depicts the gist of the chapter which concentrates on power and how it is the need to attain this power that leads to conflict. It is the insatiable desire of man to gain enough power that it reigns as the hegemon. If it does not have hegemony in the world system, it will never be satisfied and will keep competing with the other states, and it is because of this that it is hard for a perpetual peace to ever be reached because there is no status quo in the world and the balance of power keeps changing, and this dictates the way the politics in the global arena is shaped.
ReplyDeleteGood summary and analysis. I will point out though that the U.S. is not modernizing its nuclear capabilities to counter China per se; rather, they are doing so to ensure modern capabilities for its nuclear arsenal. However, the U.S. is doing other things to balance against China, such as forming deeper ties with Asia-Pacific partners (such a India and Australia), shifting its Navy towards the Pacific, and generally becoming more involved in Asian affairs. After all, the U.S. does not want China to become the Asian hegemon.
ReplyDeleteYes but china on the other hand is also making Asian development bank and other projects like PAK CHINA corridor to have an access to south asia to increase its involvement in South asia.
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