中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumHegemony and Global Governance
Authors: Pang Zhongying
Extract from ” Foreign Affairs Review, No. 4, 2009, pp. 16-20“
1. The US Governs the Whole World?
The current situation of the international system is not a state of anarchy. Since World War II, particularly since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been at the centre of the world order. The US has been governing the world. In other words, the US-centred international system is under the governance of the US.
How on earth does the United States dominate the world? The primary and basic factor of dominating the world is to dominate the world economy. Because of the financialisation of the world economy, most of the world’s real economies and financial systems become more subject to the manipulation and control of the US financial power. During the period of excessive expansion of the US financial power, virtual economy, speculative economy, and bubble economy have been rampant. In addition to the financial power, the US government also plays an active role in dominating the world. From trade laws to military laws of the legislative branch of the US government, they not only involve the US itself but also the whole world. In the executive branch of the government, the US Treasury plays an active role in world management. The astronomical amount of US budget deficit continues to show an increase due to an effort to save the US economy form the financial crisis. The “Empire of Debt” becomes more and more immense.
American hegemony did not originate from “external” source but from “internal” one. After the 1970s, under the dominance of the Reagan Doctrine and the Neoliberalism, a debt lifestyle based on high consumption and low savings was formed and accordingly, the public and private debt increased rapidly. The US economy, believed to be the safest economy, attracted a large amount of foreign capital. The US and the world established a clear relationship based on loans and debts, which made the US the world’s largest consumption country. Such a huge US market is the prerequisite of the emergence and maintenance of a series of “export-driven” economy. Such a huge consumption and the resulting economic relationship between the US and the world are without doubt unsustainable, also exacerbating the global climate (ecological) crisis.
The loss of confidence in the US dollar and the US economy resulted in the crisis of the American hegemony. Another source of this crisis is the profound political changes all over the world. After the emergence of the global political awakening, the minority domination of the world was forced to face the resentment and resistance from the majority of the world’s people towards the imperialism and the West.
2. The US Rebuilds the World Order?
There seems to be little room for foreign policy changes by President Obama’s government, nor will the market forces represented by the Wall Street facilitate these changes because of their obvious limitations. At the level of global governance, the US will not be willing to abandon its status of world leadership.
3. What is the Real Global Governance?
Because of the leading role of the United States, the global problems have their source in the US. In other words, the US is the key to solving global problems. The change of the domestic governance of the US will determine the situation of the global governance.
At present, the whole world, particularly the United States, pays close attention to the reason that China, the world economic giant, takes part in the global governance. The US is concerned whether China supports the idea of maintaining the existing world order or challenges that idea. What China is concerned about is how to maintain the autonomy, rights, interests and values of a nation-state with one fifth of the world population in the global governance; how to control and prevent global problems, risks, threats and crises through playing a role in the various international mechanisms in order to promote the world economic development; how to not only safeguard but also establish the world peace; and how to improve China’s ecological environment at the international level.
It is worth noting that China’s domestic governance and the global governance is closely related and connected. Therefore, China needs to better coordinate these two aspects: domestic and international. The achievement in China’s domestic governance will also contribute to the global governance.
The future of the world determines the future of China and vice versa. China calls for global governance not global chaos. It better benefits China’s fundamental and long-term interests that more countries and non-state actors participate in the democratic global governance rather than dominated by the American hegemony. China does not have to follow ideas of the US on the issue of participating in the global governance. What China needs is to restructure its foreign policies with global governance at the core.