dahiyars
March 9th, 2005, 11:47 PM
US Hegemony and the Imperialism
American leadership and dominance of the imperialist system was established after the Second World War in 1945. That remains intact despite some vicissitudes in the past when the decline of US economic power led to challenges from the other two centers, Europe and Japan. The US with its vastly superior military power is playing the role of hegemon and arbiter in the imperialist bloc. The US alone spends nearly fifty per cent of the total global military expenditure. It has in the nineties and after September 11 extended its military reach and established military bases and presence in new areas like Central Asia and former Soviet republics. It promotes the militarisation of Japan which prompted the Koizumi government to send troops to Iraq and embark on production of new weapons. The United States shares with the advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe and Japan the common interest of backing global finance capital and the transnational corporations. Being the strongest power, it acts as the hegemon of the imperialist system.
But while doing so, the US makes sure its national interests are served and its preeminent position protected. The US seeks to hegemonise the resources of the world. The control of oil resources is not confined to the middle-east. It extends to the Caspian Sea basin and the policing of the oil-pipelines being laid from the Caucasus and Central Asia. The absence of the Soviet Union and the ascendancy of the neo-conservative right wing circles in the US have led to the open advocacy of the imperialist role for America and the efforts to impose an imperial order by use of force, economic coercion, blockades and illegal threats. The US has in this period adopted a new strategic doctrine which spells out how it will seek to retain world domination. For the first time, the strategy declares that the US will not allow any other foreign power to catch up with the huge lead the US has established since the fall of the Soviet Union. Further, the strategy calls for use of force to desist potential adversaries from surpassing or equalling the United States in military strength. It advocates preemptive military strikes against countries or terrorist groups who threaten America’s security interests. The US withdrew from the anti-ballistic missile treaty of 1972 in order to build new weapons and missile systems such as the National Missile Defence. It refused to ratify the biological weapons convention. While reserving the right to produce new weapons and expanding the use of nuclear weapons, the US embarked on a counter-proliferation campaign targeting countries such as Iran, North Korea and Brazil to prevent them developing nuclear technology. In contrast, Israel, under the special protection of the US, is allowed to keep nuclear weapons.
The United Nations’ role has been subverted. The United States has brazenly disregarded the UN Charter. There is no scope for a rule-based international system which is just and democratic without a United Nations which is restructured to prevent unilateral US diktats. Democratization of the UN system assumes importance as a check to imperialist hegemony. With the reelection of President Bush, the aggressive reactionary sections of the US ruling classes will continue to espouse the doctrine of a neo-liberal imperialism which intervenes globally to establish ‘democracy’ and free markets and goes about this business with a big stick in hand. Fighting this dangerous face of US imperialism, opposition to war and the imperialist sponsored suppression of movements for national liberation, defence of national sovereignty and opposition to economic coercion and blockades are the key tasks of this period by all participatory democracy loving people.
R.S.Dahiya
American leadership and dominance of the imperialist system was established after the Second World War in 1945. That remains intact despite some vicissitudes in the past when the decline of US economic power led to challenges from the other two centers, Europe and Japan. The US with its vastly superior military power is playing the role of hegemon and arbiter in the imperialist bloc. The US alone spends nearly fifty per cent of the total global military expenditure. It has in the nineties and after September 11 extended its military reach and established military bases and presence in new areas like Central Asia and former Soviet republics. It promotes the militarisation of Japan which prompted the Koizumi government to send troops to Iraq and embark on production of new weapons. The United States shares with the advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe and Japan the common interest of backing global finance capital and the transnational corporations. Being the strongest power, it acts as the hegemon of the imperialist system.
But while doing so, the US makes sure its national interests are served and its preeminent position protected. The US seeks to hegemonise the resources of the world. The control of oil resources is not confined to the middle-east. It extends to the Caspian Sea basin and the policing of the oil-pipelines being laid from the Caucasus and Central Asia. The absence of the Soviet Union and the ascendancy of the neo-conservative right wing circles in the US have led to the open advocacy of the imperialist role for America and the efforts to impose an imperial order by use of force, economic coercion, blockades and illegal threats. The US has in this period adopted a new strategic doctrine which spells out how it will seek to retain world domination. For the first time, the strategy declares that the US will not allow any other foreign power to catch up with the huge lead the US has established since the fall of the Soviet Union. Further, the strategy calls for use of force to desist potential adversaries from surpassing or equalling the United States in military strength. It advocates preemptive military strikes against countries or terrorist groups who threaten America’s security interests. The US withdrew from the anti-ballistic missile treaty of 1972 in order to build new weapons and missile systems such as the National Missile Defence. It refused to ratify the biological weapons convention. While reserving the right to produce new weapons and expanding the use of nuclear weapons, the US embarked on a counter-proliferation campaign targeting countries such as Iran, North Korea and Brazil to prevent them developing nuclear technology. In contrast, Israel, under the special protection of the US, is allowed to keep nuclear weapons.
The United Nations’ role has been subverted. The United States has brazenly disregarded the UN Charter. There is no scope for a rule-based international system which is just and democratic without a United Nations which is restructured to prevent unilateral US diktats. Democratization of the UN system assumes importance as a check to imperialist hegemony. With the reelection of President Bush, the aggressive reactionary sections of the US ruling classes will continue to espouse the doctrine of a neo-liberal imperialism which intervenes globally to establish ‘democracy’ and free markets and goes about this business with a big stick in hand. Fighting this dangerous face of US imperialism, opposition to war and the imperialist sponsored suppression of movements for national liberation, defence of national sovereignty and opposition to economic coercion and blockades are the key tasks of this period by all participatory democracy loving people.
R.S.Dahiya