Return of American Primacy: Is America winning the game of power politics?

In recent days, international politics has been all about who can control whom. This tendency of controlling one another is termed the “game of power politics” by political scientists. When countries like China and Russia have adopted Wolf Warrior Diplomacy and Hard Power Diplomacy respectively to win the race of being the sole hegemon, the US is actively playing soft power diplomacy and different other policies and is more likely to win the race of establishing global dominance.

 After the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States has been the only hegemon. However, in the 2010s, the US lost a lot of its credibility as the only hegemon due to different internal and global political crises.

 China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia’s war on oil have questioned the US's global political influence to a great extent. To bring back its long-lost hegemony, the US is prioritizing policies like Soft Power Diplomacy and Monroe Doctrine. America is being profoundly successful in executing and implementing these policies due to its developed internal political culture and practices. America’s politics is more dependent on policy rather than history, tradition or ideologies, which gives them the room to practice politics and diplomacy freely.

 The US has rightly observed that implying hard power diplomacy often results in loss and hardly brings any materialistic gain.  So, the US has opted for Soft Power Diplomacy instead of Hard Power Diplomacy which ensues more practical benefits. American Political Scientist Joseph Nye first formulated the theory of Soft Power Diplomacy where he talked about the importance of soft power diplomacy in maintaining long-term bilateral relationships. 

 Dominance by means of hard power diplomacy often indicates a lack of sustainability and also doesn’t go hand in hand with the cost-benefit calculation.  We have seen that the US was hardly able to keep countries like Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan under their control by the virtue of Hard Power Diplomacy for a notable period. On contrary, before WWII Japan and Germany shared an adversary relationship with the US.

 In WWII, Japan and Germany experienced major destruction. The US then provided necessary assistance to Japan to rise and further took the responsibility for Japan’s national security. The consequence of this is, that Japan is one of the biggest allies of the US now. The US didn’t only aid Japan, by means of the Marshal Plan, the US helped West Germany to re-organize itself, and till now Germany is also one of the finest allies of the US. This shows how Soft Power Diplomacy is resulting in long-term bilateral relationships. 

 In the present era, the US is following the footsteps of Soft Power Diplomacy too. However, in recent days, the US has been choosing a different sort of Soft Power Diplomacy. Earlier, the US opted for military actions against the governments that were not obedient to the US and its policies. Nowadays, the US administration is not opting for military actions rather they are providing different sorts of aid, assistance, and technical and diplomatic support to anti-governments of those countries and states to take down the existing administration that doesn’t comply and act in accordance with the policies of the US. For instance, Venezuela’s current government is headed by Nicolas Maduro who is a Russian ally. On the other hand, the opposition of Nicolas Maduro is Juan Guaidó. The US is aiding the opposition in a different manner to take down Maduro’s administration. Again, the US is providing necessary diplomatic assistance to those who are Pro Democrats in China. i.e., who are against the Xi Jinping administration. In the same way, in Cuba, whenever there arises an anti-government movement, the US incites the protestors. Again, when any kind of protest arises against the government of Iran, US politicians showcase support for the protestors explicitly in different social media. In this way, the US has changed the shape and form of implying soft power diplomacy, which undoubtedly seems to be more politically and diplomatically efficient in order to make the US-led bloc more influential.

 Biden Administration has shown its diplomatic acuteness by adopting Monroe Doctrine at the very right time. This doctrine encourages the administration to isolate themselves for a certain period to avoid all sorts of conflict in order to organize themselves to appear as a more resourceful nation. The US was not as influential as it is today during its emergence and independence. One of the theories which kept the US relevant until now is the Monroe Doctrine.  To understand Monroe Doctrine, it’s important to have a glance at the history.  The US has got independence in 1776. From 1750 to 1850 North and South America was under Europe’s control. The US had no potential influence over these countries back then. However, in 1817 Monroe became US president. In 1823, he came up with a theory where he proposed that Latin America will not interfere in the policy and other internal affairs of Europe and that Europe must do the same with Latin America. This policy was also claimed as a “Non-interventionist” policy which implies that there will be no intervention and no intervention will be encouraged in the territory of Latin America. In this way, Monroe isolated Latin America from foreign intervention and conflicts. Whilst Latin America was staying isolated, different parts of Europe got involved in conflicts. Meanwhile different parts of Europe were busy with conflicts, and America used this as an advantage to prepare itself as a resourceful nation. After preparing itself as a resourceful nation, Latin America stepped into international politics as a superpower and almost a world leader by taking part in World War II.

 Now if we analyze the doctrine in the present context of the US, the application of the theory will get more sense. Lately, as we have seen above, the US has lost its credibility as the sole hegemon. To restore its influence, the US seems to opt for the Monroe Doctrine.

 Russia and China are two major superpowers in the present world along with the US. Russia is already involved in a few hidden wars. If we notice we can see that, by inciting Ukraine, the US had made Russia involved in another conflict. The US didn’t directly participate in the conflict. However, the US worked as a catalyst to fuel up the conflict and they were arguably successful in their attempt. On the other hand, there has been tension going on between China and Taiwan. The tension was highly fueled when Nancy Pelosi, an American politician serving as speaker of the United States House of Representatives arrived in Taiwan. On the Taiwan trip, she talked in favor of the freedom of Taiwan’s territory which is contrary to the One-China principle. In this way, by not getting directly involved in a conflict, the US almost initiated a conflict. What we can understand from this is, that when the major superpowers are busy in conflict, it would be very easy-going for the US to organize themselves and restore American Primacy.

 US’s application of theories like soft power diplomacy and Monroe’s doctrine is indeed a laudable example of a cost-effective and efficient process to establish global dominance.

 Whether what they are doing is fair or not is still in question, however, in the game of power politics, America is again proving its diplomatic adequacy in power politics to become a sole world leader.

 

To conclude, it can be said, with the rise of strong soft power diplomacy and the Monroe Doctrine, the world is more likely to experience the lost American Primacy once again.

 

The author can be reached at fateenfarhan62@gmail.com

Fateen Farhan,

Freelance Writer,

2^nd Year LL.B Student, London College of Legal Studies(South)