| Yankee Revisionism |
26 May 2003
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America Wants to Change the Rules
The Bush administration has been telling the world all along that there is a new sheriff in town, and the Iraq war was the first in a series of actions, not necessarily military in nature, designed to drive the point home. In political science, such a power is often referred to as a revisionist state. However, the ramifications of such a nation also being the world's hegemon make this a situation far different from any other.
Classic revisionist states include Bismarck's Germany and Soviet Russia. They are states whose power surpasses their position, and the policy of the government is to change the rules of international relations to create room at the top for them. Violence is often the method used, since few status quo powers will voluntarily move over for them.
The United States, though, is already at the top; indeed, for fifty years, it has been a status quo power. The revisionism has grown out of its dominant power and the belief that this power should provide perfect security. Clearly, this has not happened, and so there must be a problem with the way the world is ordered. The sorting out of this situation has begun.
The problem, of course, is that America has embarked on a "mission" that doesn't need doing. There is nothing wrong with the way the world order has been working, at least from the American perspective. There are McDonald's and Disney movies as far as the eye can see. The recent attacks on America have been in response to this dominance -- and make no mistake, they are unforgivable no matter what their cause.
America won the Second World War and the Cold War in such grand fashion that there is not a single rule that can be changed to America's advantage. All the rules, from the Security Council vetos to the voting rights at the IMF and World Bank, are pro-American. The great Amercan invention, the Internet, is largely an (American) English medium.
And so what happens when the hyper-power seeks new wrongs to right? It will cost the taxpayers, it will alienate friends, and it will encourage enemies to resist. Beyond that, though, no one knows.