Contribution or Constraint? The Role of the North American Periphery in Redefining US Power

The voluminous literature on American power naturally focuses on the United States as agent, that is, the international order's subject, whose material and material assets are assessed in order to explain its capacity to affect the shape of events almost everywhere outside its borders. Discussi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHegemony or Empire? pp. 203 - 217
Main Author Clarkson, Stephen
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 2006
Edition1
Subjects
Total EU Export
International Political Economy Context
United States
Antidumping Duties
PNAC
Soft Power Assets
NATO Capability
USA Patriot Act
WTO's Dispute Settlement System
CIA Agent
Smart Border Agreements
National Security Strategy
FCC Ruling
British North America Act
Nep
NAFTA's Negotiation
UN
International Humanitarian Law
PNAC Document
DND
Total EU Import
Continental Periphery
EU's International Role
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Summary:The voluminous literature on American power naturally focuses on the United States as agent, that is, the international order's subject, whose material and material assets are assessed in order to explain its capacity to affect the shape of events almost everywhere outside its borders. Discussions of the United States' recent global position generally start with its massive concrete assets understood in terms of such attributes as the wealth and vitality of its population, the size and dynamism of its domestic economy, the competitiveness and overseas reach of its corporations, the war- and peace-making capacity of its military. Beyond these indicators of its hard power, the United States' clout has also been attributed to the attractiveness of its liberal values, the success of its economic model, and the popularity of its mass cultural products. Such examples of soft power shift more attention to the willingness of other states as objects in the international system to bend to Uncle Sam's will. Although US influence is generally understood to be mainly a function of its own hard- and soft-power assets, this chapter makes a further claim: an epistemology which does not also understand American power as a dependent variable is insufficient in an interdependent world.
ISBN:9780754647744
0754647749
DOI:10.4324/9781315586502-13