Towards a Post-Hegemonic Age?

1 The New York Times, 14 April 1991.

2 During the Gulf War the American Council on Competitiveness published a report showing the US' weakness in cutting-edge technologies. The USA was regarded as competitive in only 25 out of the 94 strategic technologies; in 18 the USA was in a precarious position and in another 15 it was out of the race. Cf. Carlos Pérez-Llana, De la Guerra del Golfo al Nuevo Orden (Buenos Aires: GEL, 1991) pp. 120-121. `When examining the US technological position, the American Council on Competitiveness gave America a B minus grade. Strong performances in some areas were offset by weak performances in others.' Lester B. Thurow, Head to Head. The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe, and America. (New York: W.Morrow and Co., 1992), p. 158.

3 Cf. Stanley Hoffmann, `A New World and its Troubles', Foreign Affairs, vol. 69, no. 4, Fall 1990, pp. 115-122, and Fred C. Bergsten, `The World Economy After the Cold War', Foreign Affairs, vol. 69, no. 3 (Summer 1990), pp. 96-112. On the meanings of `world order' see Joseph S. Nye, Jr. `What New World Order?', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2 (Spring 1992), pp. 83-96.

4 Discussion on the issue of `hegemony or decline' was intense. See, among others, Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International Relations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987); Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000. (New York: Random House, 1987); Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony. Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press); Henry R. Nau, The Myth of America's Decline (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Bound to Lead. The Changing Nature of American Power (New York: Basic Books, 1990) and also his `The Changing Nature of World Power', Political Science Quarterly, vol. 105, no. 2, 1990; Bruce Russett, `The Mysterious Case of Vanishing Hegemony; or is Mark Twain Really Dead?', International Organization vol. 39, no. 2 (Spring 1985) pp. 207-232; Duncan Snidal, `Hegemonic Stability Theory Revisited', International Organization, vol. 39 (Autumn 1985) pp. 579-614; Susan Strange, `The Persistent Myth of the Lost Hegemony', International Organization vol. 41, no. 4 (Autumn 1987) pp. 551-574; and Immanuel Wallerstein, The Politics of the World Economy. The States, the Movements and the Civilizations. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

5 Perry Anderson, `The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci', New Left Review, no. 100, November 1976-January 1977, pp. 15-25.

6 Cf. Wallerstein, The Politics of the World Economy, p. 41.

7 Lester B. Thurow, Head to Head., p. 246.

8 Cf. K.W. Deutsch, The Nerves of Government (New York: The Free Press, 1966), pp. 120-124

9 Joseph S. Nye, Bound to Lead, pp. 185-187

10 Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony, p. 37.; Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981) p. 203. For a criticism of these theses see G. John Ikenberry, `Rethinking the Origins of American Hegemony', Political Science Quarterly, vol. 104, no. 3, 1989, pp. 375-381, and Joseph Nye, Jr, Bound to Lead, pp. 177-192.

11 Cf. Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, pp. 514-535

12 Cf. Lester Thurow, Head to Head, p. 21.

13 On this issue see Charles Krauthammer, `The Unipolar Moment', Foreign Affairs, vol. 70, no. 1, 1990-1991, pp. 23-33.

14 Cf. Robert W. Cox, `Social Forces, States and World Order: Beyond International Relations Theory', in Robert O. Keohane ed. Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), pp. 217-225.

15 Wallerstein, The Politics of the World Economy, pp. 38-39.

16 Wallerstein, The Politics of the World Economy, p. 46.

17 Bergsten, `The World Economy After the Cold War', p. 104.

18 Robert Gilpin, `American Policy in the Post-Reagan Era,' in Daedalus no. 116 (Summer 1987), p. 49.

19 Hoffmann, `A New World and its Troubles', p. 117; see also Bergsten, `The World Economy After the Cold War', p. 105.

20 Regarding proposals for the reorganization of the international system see Richard Rosecrance, `A New Concert of Powers', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2, (Spring 1992), pp. 66-69.; Nye, `What New World Order?', and James N. Rosenau and Ernst-Otto Czempiel,eds, Governance without Government. Order and Change in World Politics. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

21 Cf. James N. Rosenau, `Governance, Order, and Change in World Politics', in James N. Rosenau and Ernst-Otto Czempiel, Governance without Government, pp. 1-29.

22 Cf. Wallerstein, `The Politics of the World Economy”, pp. 41-43. A sharp criticism of the many pitfalls of the `balance of power' is to be found in Richard Rosecrance, `A New Concert of Powers', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2, (Spring 1992), pp. 66-69.

23 Cf. Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International Relations, p. 103.

24 Cf. Raúl Bernal-Meza, Claves del Nuevo Orden Mundial (Buenos Aires: GEL, 1991), p. 52.

25 Cf. Wallerstein, `The Politics of World Economy', p. 39.

26 Cf. Nye, `What New World Order?', pp. 86-88.

27 Rosecrance, `A New Concert of Powers' pp. 64-65.

28 Hoffmann, `A New World and its Troubles', p. 122.