Reflection 3

Learning about the concept of Hegemony this week helped me to see the US global position as it is. I had never actually put thought into the fact that the US is the modern Hegemon, though I cannot understand why. The US, economically and politically, is the most important and influential country in the world. People in Romania may not be able to tell you who the current President of South Africa is, but they can tell you who the president of the United States is, how long he has been in office, and probably the last important political action that took place in the US. The US economic determines the economic status of the entire world. As the US fell into deep recession in the fall of 2008, eventually the whole of Europe fell into an even deeper recession.

In all honesty, it is quite scary that a single country could have such a big influence on the world. In the past, as stated by Christopher Layne in "The Unipolar Illusion Revisited," other states have challenged a Hegemonic state and tried to balance out the power. These attempts have always succeeded, but it has been twenty years since the end of the Cold War, when the two dominant powers were the US and the USSR, and no one has challenged the US yet. An interesting point was brought up in class the other day, that maybe China is stepping up and challenging the US's power. I believe that this is very possible, but that China will not pose a huge threat until it can fix some of its internal problems, like population growth.