Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
play a role in many of these regional security trouble spots, but its overall leverage as global
security provider is diminished.
It is the impact of unipolarity on the general framework of Western and global rules and
institutions that has triggered the most worries. At the very least, the shift in power advant-
ages in favor of the United States would help explain why it might want to renegotiate older
rules and institutions. In this sense, America after the Cold War entered into its second “he-
gemonic moment.” After World War II, it translated its power advantages into a set of global
and regional institutions; it created a liberal hegemonic order. By the end of the 1990s, Amer-
ica's unipolar advantages put it in a position to engage in a similar sort of adjustment process.
During the Clinton years, this adjustment and renegotiation of the liberal hegemonic order
primarily entailed expanding and deepening liberal international order. But the expansion and
integration of the global system—a byproduct of the old order—have also brought new is-
sues and new demands for rules and institutions as well as new controversies and conflicts.
Out of these circumstances, America appeared to some observers to be a revisionist unipolar
state—driven by its power advantages to pursue an ambitious agenda of global transforma-
tion.
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The shift from Cold War bipolarity to unipolarity gives the United States incentives to
renegotiate its hegemonic bargains with other states. But—more profoundly—unipolarity
may also be creating conditions that reduce the willingness of the United States to operate
within frameworks of agreed-upon rules and institutions. The unique global position that the
United States occupies leads it to demand special status and exemptions from multilateral
rules and institutions. For example, the United States cannot be party to the anti-land mine
convention because its troops are uniquely deployed in harm's way—such as along the
Korean DMZ. The United States has also argued that it cannot sign the International Crimin-
al Court treaty because its global security presence makes Americans unusually vulnerable to
politically inspired prosecutions. The result is that unipolarity leads to demands by the lead
state to be treated differently, and this reduces its willingness to operate within multilateral
rules and institutions.
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Unipolarity also creates more opportunities for the lead state to influence or control the
policies of other states without resort to commitment to multilateral rules and institutions. Its
preponderance of power creates opportunities for it to push adjustment off on other states.
The United States can set its own domestic regulatory standards in some areas—and this puts
pressure on other countries and regions to adopt similar standards. The United States does
not need to compromise its policy autonomy to get agreement from other states. Likewise,
the market power of the United States can be used to influence or control the policies of oth-
ers states. An example is the use of third-party sanctions. If countries do not adopt similar
policies toward a target state, the United States will threaten sanctions against these coun-
tries.
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