February 18th, 2015

Neocolonialism and Global Hegemony

            This week talked about Neocolonialism, which is a theory based on the idea that colonialism hasn’t ended, it has just changed. Neocolonialism creates a colonial dependency, only using the free market capitalistic system to dominate a country economically and eventually culturally. Governments do not control the colonial process, rather businesses within each country control the colonial process. Countries can do this by creating a Lengua Franca, or a language of business that businesses in other countries must use in order to interact with them. They can also create a culture so pervasive and popular that it picks up in other countries. They can create organizations which push for education because that push for education becomes a push for a specific type of education which supports that country’s ideals. The US has westernized the world using these strategies.

            In my opinion, neocolonialism is a valid theory, and I think it is not a good thing. The way that the US has spread its ideal across the world not only prevents nations and peoples from having individualism and squashes culture, it also creates enemies for the US. Terrorist acts like September 11^th wouldn’t occur with such frequency if the US didn’t use its own ideals to overpower the culture and ideals of other countries, in my opinion.     We also talked about the theory of Global Hegemony, which is the notion that when one strong country exists and exerts itself, the world could have peace and when that one country is not present or is not strong, chaos exists. Global Hegemonic theory postulates that the US is the hegemon, but that it doesn’t know it or doesn’t exert its power properly.

            The theory, for me, has too many caveats to read as credible. The hegemon must know they are the hegemon and must use that knowledge and power in the proper way, if they even exist at all. As well, the theory reads like a global dictatorship. I would cautiously say that the amount of power given in the title Hegemon is too much, and that it could lead to abuse of that power. I disagree with the idea of giving any one country more authority than another. It sounds like a hair-brained scheme to rule the world that Pinky and the Brain might come up with. I believe in the power of people, and what they can do when they put their heads together, and that, to me, transcends international borders.