Paper Topic:

Political Science/Government

Various Definitions of Hegemony and Pax Americana

The politics of hegemony is an important area of political science During the Pax Americana period - that is , after WWII - the United States is known to have helped the world establish economic (Samuelson , 2006 ,

. A31 . Moreover , the U .S . is known to have assisted other countries with economic aid and in reconstruction efforts , for example , with the well-known Marshall Plan (Hogan , 1989 ,

. 1-25 Heardon (2002 ) describes the United States as an architect of a new world during the Second World War . Hence , it is

important to comprehend the power of the U .S . in the light of various definitions of hegemony

The word , `hegemony ' is known to have its roots in the Greek verb hegeisthai ' meaning to lead ( What is Hegemony ' 2007 . In the ancient Greek civilization the term applied to leaders that were able to influence and exert a tremendous amount of control over groups of people . The hegemons had to be supported by at least one dominant group so as to keep the common people from rebelling against established leaders ( What is Hegemony

Watson (2002 ) refers to two meanings of hegemony in International Relations : One has to do with the distribution of power in a system Not merely military force , but also technical and financial strength The other meaning is the dominance of a particular idea or set of assumptions , such as economic liberalism and globalization (p . 1 Certainly the second definition of hegemony in International Relations...

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