{"id":30856075,"date":"2019-04-12T03:54:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/?p=30856075"},"modified":"2019-04-12T13:58:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T10:58:32","slug":"jonathan-pass-its-too-soon-to-talk-about-the-end-of-american-hegemony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/english\/2019\/04\/jonathan-pass-its-too-soon-to-talk-about-the-end-of-american-hegemony\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Pass: \u201cIt\u2019s too soon to talk about the end of American hegemony\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lecturer at the School of Public International Law and International Relations at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Jonathan Pass presents his theory on world hegemony with a Neo<\/em> neo-gramscian focus, with which he analyses the complex interaction of the internal and external social forces responsible for the evolution of US hegemony, paying special attention to the new role of China within the international sphere. The research conclusions have been issued by the publisher Routledge (New York) in his book \u201cAmerican Hegemony in the 21st<\/sup> Century: a Neo<\/em> Neo-Gramscian Perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, I would say that it is still too soon to talk about the end of American hegemony: global structural changes occur slowly and often in contradictory forms\u201d, Dr. Pass affirms, citing as an example how, after the 2008 financial crisis, investors fled to the dollar and US Treasury bonds. \u201cUntil China carries out the complete internationalisation of the renminbi, current account liberalization, and opens up its internal market to foreign investors \u2013 measures with potentially important domestic political repercussions \u2013 it is likely that the United States will continue to enjoy this privileged position\u201d, he adds.<\/p>\n

One of work\u2019s principal merits is the elaboration of a novel theoretical framework, which has also been published in the article \u201cGramsci Meets Emergent Materialism: Towards a Neo <\/em>Neo-Gramscian Perspective on World Order\u201d in the journal Review of International Studies<\/em> (Cambridge University Press). The author carries out a critique of the neo-Gramscian perspective, offering a sophisticated, explicitly materialist, theory on world hegemony rooted in critical realism. \u201cIn international relations\u201d, he explains, \u201cthere is a tendency to conceptualise hegemony as being synonymous with either \u2018domination\u2019 (based on coercion) or \u2018intellectual and moral leadership\u2019 (a consensual and intersubjective relationship), when in reality both elements are always<\/em> present\u201d.<\/p>\n

With regards its main theme, \u2018American Hegemony in the 21st<\/sup> Century: a <\/em>Neo neo-Gramscian Perspective<\/em>\u2019 focuses on American hegemony, exploring the origins and construction process of this \u2018leadership\u2019, in addition to its shifts and transformations during periods of crisis. Jonathan Pass emphasizes that the causes of American hegemony\u2019s present crisis can be found in the internal contradictions of the neoliberal\/financialization accumulation regime and the conservative revolution that United States \u2018exported\u2019 from the mid-1970s onwards. Nevertheless, and although its hegemony might be weakening, the author makes clear that the US still maintains its dominance in key economic sectors (e.g. finance, IT and retail) and industries (e.g. aerospace, pharmaceuticals and arms). Likewise, he stresses that both cultural and military hegemony are in good health: \u201cFor now, nobody questions US supremacy in the audiovisual sector, advertising\/marketing and the arts. Nobody doubts it boasts the most influential media, social networks and elite universities in the world, or that its military forces far exceed any rival with regards the sophistication and might of its weaponry and global power projection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pass maintains that we are living through what Gramsci called \u2018interregnum\u2019: a crisis created when the old order is dying but the new one has yet to be born. \u201cWhen the capitalist system enters a crisis, it is usually those \u2018at the bottom\u2019 who end up paying the consequences. Unsurprisingly the lower classes seek solutions outside the \u2018mainstream\u2019. Given the weakness of the Left, predictably it is right-wing popularism such as that of Trump, UKIP or Vox, that end up attracting followers\u201d, he asserts.<\/p>\n

In the book, the researcher describes the rise of China as an \u201chistorical event\u201d producing a restructuring of the global capitalist system and affecting power relations both between and within states. To evaluate China\u2019s \u2018world hegemon\u2019 potential, the author dedicates chapter 5 to analysing its evolution over the last 40 years. \u201cIt has been undergoing what Gramsci termed a \u2018passive revolution\u2019: a socio-economic transformation directed from above. During almost all this time it has remained faithful to Deng Xiaoping\u2019s maxim \u2018hide our capabilities and bide our time\u2019 with respects to the world order\u201d, Dr. Pass claims, adding that things started to change for China following the 2008 financial crisis, which made it clear just how unsustainable its economic growth model and neoliberal\/financialization accumulation regime were. \u201cSince then, Beijing has been much more proactive in the global economy, supporting the international expansion of its corporations, setting up its own multilateral institutions, away from of the Bretton Woods \u2018trio\u2019, and launching its own particular Marshall Plan across Eurasia (Belt and Road Initiative). Said measures, needless to say, have not gone down well with Washington\u201d, he holds.<\/p>\n

Finally, one of the key arguments of the book is that world hegemony depends upon the \u2018internationalization\u2019 of the social forces emergent from the dynamics of its national class system. The author explains that the big challenge for Xi Jinping is how to reconcile the official, nominally communist, political regime with the socio-economic reality: a ferociously capitalist country with exorbitant levels of economic and regional inequality. Concerning the outlook for the coming years, Pass errs on the side of caution: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to make predictions about the future. One has to remember that hegemony is not a \u2018state\u2019, but rather a \u2018process\u2019. Historically, hegemonic transitions are long, complex and bellicose. Much will depend on how the huge contradictions inside China play out, especially the dynamic of its \u2018passive revolution\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Book reference:
\n<\/strong>Pass, Jonathan:\u201cUS Hegemony in the 21st<\/sup> Century: A Neo<\/em> Neo-Gramscian Perspective\u201d
\nRoutledge, New York, 2019
\nISBN: 978-1-138-31106-0
\nhttps:\/\/www.routledge.com\/American-Hegemony-in-the-21st-Century-A-Neo-Neo-Gramscian-Perspective\/Pass\/p\/book\/9781138311060<\/a><\/p>\n

For more on the theoretical framework, consult:
\n<\/strong>\u201cGramsci Meets Emergentist Materialism: Towards a Neo<\/em> Neo-Gramscian Perspective on World Order\u201d Review of International Studies<\/em>; Volumen: 44, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 565-618
\nCambridge University Press (Reino Unido)
\nhttps:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/review-of-international-studies\/article\/gramsci-meets-emergentist-materialism-towards-a-neo-neogramscian-perspective-on-world-order\/EBE44C0C7ECEFEA47A1536D8721B3FD4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lecturer at the School of Public International Law and International Relations at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Jonathan Pass presents his theory on world hegemony with a Neo neo-gramscian focus, with which he analyses the complex interaction of the internal and external social forces responsible for the evolution of US hegemony, paying special attention to the new role of China within the international sphere. The research conclusions have been issued by the publisher Routledge (New York) in his book \u201cAmerican Hegemony in the 21st Century: a Neo Neo-Gramscian Perspective\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30856075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30856075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30856075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30856075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30856076,"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30856075\/revisions\/30856076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30856075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30856075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upo.es\/diario\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30856075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}