Liberal Hegemony
My first reaction to Mearsheimer’s liberal hegemony concept was “red flags.” How could anything liberal be hegemonic? I though this guy must be another Republican trashing liberals. But, I found out his beliefs and theories are a bit more nuanced than my first inspection revealed. As it turns out this nuance is critical to understand and I plan to discuss it at length towards the end of this series. But, for now, I will state it simply.
Mearsheimer defines the term liberal with two separate domains of action. Global and Local.
One must dig a bit into his writings but he clearly states that he is grateful for our American tradition of liberal ideals. And, that our beliefs and institutions that are identified with the word liberal are exactly why America is a “great power.” What Mearsheimer questions is what we did with this power. He calls this projection of power liberal hegemony. Again, simplifying:
- Domestic Liberal values are good. (Local)
- Global projection of Liberal hegemonic values is bad. (Global)
Examples of this projection he gives is the Bush Doctrine, trade treaties, expanding the European Union, and expanding NATO. And most importantly the fate of the Ukraine. Casting his net wider he uses he uses the concept of liberal hegemony to be critical of wars and events previous to the collapse of the Soviet Union. But, this series is only focused on the event of the last 20 years or so.
Timothy Snyder’s concept of “The Politics Inevitability” and Mearsheimer’s concept of “Liberal Hegemony” are remarkably similar. And draw upon most of the same historical events as examples. However, there is a key difference in their approach to causal relations.
Snyder digs into the political philosophy, physiological motives, and religious under pinnings behind historical events that have got us to where we are. In other words Snyder talks about indirect causation. And, Mearsheimer deliberately ignores speculation of motives and focuses on the direct causation of actions and counter actions.
I respect that Mearsheimer has been against all the stupid wars that America has engaged in over the last 60 years. I respect Mearsheimer’s service to the Jewish community. I also enjoy his lecture style and his deliberate simplification of issues into direct causation.
But, sadly he is walking a fine line between the Democrats and Republicans. And I’m fearful that Republicans will use his words to attack liberals by the cherry picking and misconstruing that Republican are so good at.
Sorry for the long explanations and disclaimers above. I’m now ready to get to the key point to consider for today. Until I started reading Mearsheimer I assumed the west was faultless pushing capitalist instruments all around the world. I was caught up in the inevitability of America winning. Consider what Mearsheimer says:
Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault
According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine.
But this account is wrong: the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West. At the same time, the EU’s expansion eastward and the West’s backing of the pro-democracy movement in Ukraine -- beginning with the Orange Revolution in 2004 -- were critical elements, too. <snip>
Foreign Affairs: Why the Ukraine Crisis Is The West’s Fault
It is interesting to note that the subtitle of this Foreign Affairs article is: The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin. This is an example of a conservative magazine misusing the word liberal. Thus, putting a spin on the article.
Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement, and in recent years, they have made it clear that they would not stand by while their strategically important neighbor turned into a Western bastion. For Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected and pro-Russian president -- which he rightly labeled a “coup” -- was the final straw. He responded by taking Crimea, a peninsula he feared would host a NATO naval base, and working to destabilize Ukraine until it abandoned its efforts to join the West.
Foreign Affairs: Why the Ukraine Crisis Is The West’s Fault
What is important is for the United States to create policy of response to Russia that will minimize armed physical conflict. While this series is about physiological warfare and cyberwarfare I would negligent not to present ideas on how to manage armed warfare. Mearsheimer is considered an authority on these issues.
Stated simply, Mearsheimer says we should have not encroached so fast and aggressively on the Soviet Unions old territory. Accepting this may be a key to understanding how to diffuse some of the the damage done internationally by Putin.
I would like to thank USExpat for this article: Brief Thoughts On Internet (In)justice This Cyber Monday Eve. It is a great article about preparing and improving our cyberwarfare footing. In addition the post brought to my attention an important paper, Fanning the Flames of Hate: Social Media and Hate Crime. It is about establishing causality between social media and hate crime using Facebook data. Thank you USExpat.
![John Joseph Mearsheimer (/ˈmɪərʃaɪmər/;[3] born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.](https://images.dailykos.com/images/615779/large/John_Mearsheimer.jpg?1543194728 "John Joseph Mearsheimer (/ˈmɪərʃaɪmər/;[3] born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.")
