Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ations. Agreements over the “status of forces” were negotiated that specified terms of bases,
the stationing of troops, and defense cooperation. Beyond this, America's junior security
partners were expected to support Washington's wider political-economic leadership posi-
tion. In particular, West Germany and Japan—highly dependent on the United States for se-
curity in the early postwar decades—felt obligations to support American trade and monetary
leadership. From the 1950s to the early 1970s, West Germany supported American monetary
policy and the role of the dollar in the face of mounting balance-of-payments pressure as part
of its perceived obligations under the alliance.
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America's hegemonic role in maintaining economic stability and openness gave it priv-
ileges. These would be tolerated as long as the United States continued to provide public
goods. This is seen in the advantages it has had within the postwar monetary order. As Ben-
jamin Cohen argues, “an implicit bargain was struck” between the United States and its
European and Japanese partners. For both economic and political reasons, Western Europe
(particularly West Germany) and Japan agreed to finance the American balance-of-payments
deficit. “America's allies acquiesced in a hegemonic system that accorded the United States
special privileges to act abroad unilaterally to promote U.S. interests. The United States, in
turn, condoned its allies' use of the system to promote their own economic prosperity, even
if this happened to come largely at the expense of the United States.”
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The Political Bargain
The political bargain was more implicit and addressed the uncertainties associated with
America's preeminent power position. The United States would open itself up and bind itself
to its partners; in return, European and East Asian states would accept American leader-
ship and operate within the liberal hegemonic order. Through this bargain, the United States
would make itself “user-friendly” by creating channels of access to foreign-policy decision
making in Washington. The order would remain hierarchical, but it would be made more con-
sensual, cooperative, and integrative than coercive. Under these circumstances, other states
would agree to work with the United States rather than resist it.
The character of the United States and its major partners—they were all liberal democra-
cies—facilitated the building of this liberal hegemonic order organized around multilateral-
ism, alliance partnership, strategic restraint, cooperative security, and institutional and rule-
based relationships. The institutional underpinnings of this order made America's power pos-
ition both more durable and less threatening to other states. And the institutional architecture
of the order facilitated a consensual style to hegemonic command and control.
In this view, three elements made the political bargain possible. First, the fact that the Un-
ited States was a large, open democracy and that its major partners were democracies allowed
a reciprocal and consensual style of hegemony. The liberal character of the United States as
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