CHAPTER 3 : US Hegemony in World Politics NCERT SOLUTION CLASS 12TH POLITICAL SCIENCE | EDUGROWN NOTES

Short Answer Type Questions:

Q1. Give an example each of the three types of hegemony that are dealt within the chapter. Do not cite examples that are in the chapter.

Answer

• Hegemony as Hard Power: Afiya was an artist living in Mozambique who was doing well in her studies and was planning to study medicine in university. But she lost her leg in 2003 missile attack by the US. After she overcame it, she still plans to become a doctor, but only after the foreign armies leave her country.

• Hegemony as Structural Power: Kungawo, a very good artist who lives in Durban, South Africa. His paintings are heavily influenced by traditional tribal art forms and wants to go to art school
and later open his own studio. But his father wants him to do engineering in computer science due to flair for job opportunities in the same.

• Hegemony as Soft Power: Oliver is a young and energetic man of New Zealand. Her parents are immigrants from Russia. His father gets upset when he puts on black shirt with white jeans while he goes to church. He justifies that black colour signifies protest for freedom and white signifies freedom in a peaceful manner

Q2. Mention three ways in which US dominance since the Cold War is different from its position as a superpower during the Cold War.

Answer

• During Cold War, the US found it difficult to win over the Soviet Union as hard power due to retaliating capacity of the Soviet Union and to protest world from large scale destruction. But in the areas of structural and soft power, the US dominated.

• During Cold War years, the Soviet Union provided an alternate model of socialist economy to maximise welfare of states. Still the world economy throughout the Cold War years adapted capitalist economy under the US.

• In the area of soft power, the US became triumphant. As the example of blue jeans shows that the US could engineer a generational gap even in Soviet Society on culture basis.

Q3. Match the following:

i. Operation Infinite Reach	a. War against Al-Qaeda and Taliban
ii. Operation Enduring Freedom	b. Coalition of the willing
iii. Operation Desert Storm	c. Missile attack in Sudan
iv. Operation Iraqi Freedom	d. First Gulf War

Answer

i. Operation Infinite Reach	c. Missile attack in Sudan
ii. Operation Enduring Freedom	a. War against Al-Qaeda and Taliban
iii. Operation Desert Storm	d. First Gulf War
iv. Operation Iraqi Freedom	b. Coalition of the willing

Q4. What are the constraints on American hegemony today? Which one of these do you expect to get more important in the future?
Answer

“We can identify three constraints on American Power” which were actually not in operation in the years following 9/11. Hence the US could establish its hegemony. Recently all these constraints are slowly beginning to operate in the following ways:

• The US bears institutional architecture in the American State itself. It refers division of powers between the three branches of government where American military’s executive branch can place significant brakes upon the unrestrained and immoderate exercise.

• The second constraint on American hegemony emerges from open nature of American society. American society and suffering from a deep skepticism towards purposes and methods of government in America despite an imposition of particular perspectives on domestic opinion in the US. This is a huge constraint on US military action overseas.

• The third constraint on US hegemony is the possession of NATO to moderate the exercise of the US hegemony today. The US has an enormous interest in keeping the alliance of democracies to follow the market economies alive and it may be possible to its allies in NATO to moderate the exercise of the US hegemony through their own liberal policies to fulfill their own ends.

Q5. Read the three extracts in the chapter from Lok Sabha debate on the Indo-US deal. Develop any one of these into a full speech defending a certain position on Indo-US relations.
Answer

The following speech has been developed based on the excerpts from Lok Sabha debate as presented by Major General (Retired) B.C. Khanduri of BJP:

Sir, I would respectfully draw the attention of august house towards the US hegemony in today’s scenario. But we should not ignore the fact that India might be next waiting in the wings to perform as a superpower to maintain its own identity. Moreover, hegemony can not stand forever due to its weaknesses. Therefore, we are supposed to have a good and harmonious relations with that of the US for mutual promotion of trade and technology. But India should not compromise from the same on the cost of its own security and identity.
Hence, India should work in a diplomatic manner while it thinks to go hand-in¬hand the US in such a manner that India could extract best benefits from the US hegemony and find out mutual options for itself.
Thanks.

Q6. “If big and resourceful states cannot resist the US hegemony, it is unrealistic to expect much smaller and weaker non-state actors to offer any resistance”. Examine this proposition and give your opinion.
Answer

This proposition focuses only on, the powers of the state and believes that only big and resourceful states can challenge the US hegemony which it approaches right in a practical manner, but if we think deeply these are thoughts and pens of writers, expressions of artists, media and intellectuals who have no boundaries including hegemony itself to be criticised and resisted in the form of non-government organisations (NGOs), social movements and public opinion. Hence, non-state actors may challenge the US hegemony also in their own way and it can work out also

Long Answer Type Questions:

Q1. Examine any three factors responsible for the US hegemony in the world politics.
Answer: Three factors responsible for the US hegemony in the world politics are
(i) The US power lies in the overwhelming superiority of its military power. American military dominance today is both absolute and relative. In absolute terms, the US today has military capabilities that can reach any point on the planet accurately, lethally and in real time, thereby crippling the adversary while its own forces are sheltered to the maximum extent possible from the dangers of war.
(ii) No other power today can remotely match them. The US today spends
more on its military capability than the next 12 powers combined. Further more, a large chunk of the Pentagon’s budget goes into military research and development, or, in other words, technology. Thus, the military dominance of the US is not just based on higher military spending, but on a qualitative gap, a technological chasm that no other power can at present conceivably span.
(iii) The US invasion of Iraq shows that the American capacity to conquer is formidable. Similarly the US capability to deter and to punish is self-evident. More than forty countries joined in the US-led ‘coalition of the willing’ after the UN refused to give its mandate to theinvasion. Thus, no country can deny the US superiority in the world politics.

Q2. Explain the three types of US hegemony and give examples for each.
Answer: GO Hegemony as Hard Power:
(a) This hegemony signifies military status of America to be both absolute and relative. In absolute terms, it has military capabilities to reach any point on the Planet accurately and no other power today can remotely match them.
(b) The US military dominance is based on both the higher military expenditure and on a qualitative gap i.e. technological know-how.
(ii) Hegemony as Structural Power:
(a) It signifies ‘Economic Prospects’ of hegemon power to possess both the ability and the desire to establish certain norms for order and sustain global structure even including goods to be consumed by one person without reducing the amount of goods available for someone else.
(b) A classical example is academic
degree MBA (Masters in Business Administration) to presume business as a profession to be dependent upon skills that can be taught in a University which is uniquely American.
(iii) Hegemony as Soft Power:
(a) US Hegemony has its cultural dimensions also which implies class ascendancy in social, political and particularly ideological spheres to shape the behaviour of competing and lesser powers.Here, the consent goes hand in and more effective than coercion.
(b) For example, most of the dreams of individuals and societies across the globe, are dreams churned out by practices prevailing in twentieth—century America. All these are about the capacity to manufacture consent.

Q3. What are different natures of hegemony? Explain.
Answer: Hegemony is an international system to dominate world by only one superpower. The natures of hegemony can be found out as follows:
(i) Hegemony as Hard Power:
(a) It is based on the military capability between the states.
(b) The US military dominance is based on their higher expenditures on military as well as the technological know-how.
(c) The US bears military dominance in both the terms i.e. absolute and relative. In absolute terms the US military capabilities can reach any point on the planet and no other power can be a match to them.
(ii) Hegemony as Structural Power:
(a) It is based on economic factors of the world dominated by the hegemonic power.
(b) Hegemony must sustain global structure to establish certain norms for order and the US has set up Bretton Woods System.
(c) The US hegemony has provided the global public goods to be consumed by one person without reducing the amount available for someone else as SLoCs and the Internet, MBA degree.
(iii) Hegemony as Soft Power:
(a) To dominate world even in reference of cultural dimensions i.e. class ascendancy in social, political and ideological spheres.
(b) The US hegemony has the capacity to create ‘manufacturing consent’ by the class to be dominated by the hegemon.
(c) The ‘blue jeans’ from the US is capable to engineer even a generational divide.

Q4. How can the US hegemony be checked?
Or
How long will hegemony last? How do we get beyond hegemony?
Answer: (i) The US hegemony has been symbolised as the global village and other countries as its neighbours.
(ii) If the headman of global village becomes intolerable, neighbours do not have any choice of leaving it, but develop a resistant.
(iii) Though there are some rules and norms called laws of war that restrict but do not prohibit war.
(iv) No single power can challenge the US militarily.
Still, to overcome the US hegemony, the following strategies have been found out: (a) Bandwagon strategy emphasises not to oppose hegemonic power, instead take advantage of opportunities that hegemon creates i.e. increased trade and technology transfer and investments to extract benefits by operating within hegemonic system. (.b) To hide strategy implies to stay as far removed from the dominant power as possible as China, Russia and the European Union. This strategy is applicable to small states but states may not be able to hide for substantial length of time.
(c) Non-state actors as writers, artists and intellectuals have no boundaries to work with. They can reach beyond the limits of the states to mould the minds of people through their expressions.

Q5. What is meant by Operation Iraqi Freedom? Mention its main and hidden objectives. Give any two consequences of this operation.
Answer: Operation Iraqi Freedom was the code name given by the US to launch invasion on 19 March 2003. More than 40 countries joined in the US led coalition of the willing after the UN refused to give its mandate to the invasion.
Main Objective: To prevent Iraq from developing Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD). Since no evidence of WMD has been unearthed in Iraq. Hidden Objective: It was motivated by controlling Iraqi Oilfields and installing a regime friendly to the US. Consequences of this Operation
1. Although the government of Saddam Hussein fell swiftly but US has not been able to pacify Iraq.
2. A fully fledged insurgency against US occupation was ignited in. Iraq.
3. Conservatively estimated that 50,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the US-led invasion.
4. It is widely recognised that the US invasion of Iraq was, in some crucial respects, both a military and political failure.