Cultural Norms And Maintenance Of U.S. Hegemony

Whether U.S. hegemony could fall or not is an important and controversialinternational politics topic in the21st century. The expansion of the NewConservatism in American politics, the development of unilateralism in U.S. foreignpolicy, and financial and fiscal crisis have made U.S. hegemony experienceunprecedented threats and challenges. The hegemonic powers, however, will not exitthe stage of history. With the support from U.S. scholars defending the legitimacy andthe rationality of U.S. hegemony, U.S. government declares: the21st century is stillthe American century; the21st century is still America’s Pacific Century. Therefore,the continuation, decline, and maintenance of U.S. hegemony will be the mostsensitive issue, also the core of international politics.How U.S. hegemony maintains is not only a theory, also a real strategic issue.There is a closed relationship among the maintenance of American hegemony,American culture and international norms. Specifically, American culture is thedomestic basis of U.S. hegemony; the international norms shaping by U.S.government is protection and support of U.S. hegemony; and American-stylegovernance is a bridge between the United States and the world culture standard. As aresult, despite the decline of the U.S. hard power, America’s soft power is still able toexpand; in this sense, the hegemonic crisis could be resolved partially. However, theconflict between the American norms and international norms made the basis ofAmerica’s soft power has been eroded. Moreover, the combination ofAnti-Americanism combines and the opposition to U.S. hegemony leads U.S.hegemony to be trapped into a more serious crisis of legitimacy.In summary, according to constructivism, this thesis will focus on therelationship between cultural norms and U.S. hegemony, analyzing the role of U.S.hegemony on the international cultural norms in order to reveal that the maintenanceof U.S. hegemony depends on U.S. domestic cultural foundation. Moreover, the thesiswould describe the reaction of U.S. the hegemony to anti-regulation of cultural norms and summarize the cultural norms of positive and negative aspects of the systemeffect.This thesis consists of six chapters：The first chapter illustrates the main purpose and significance of this thesis, withdescribing research methods and logical structure. The second chapter shows theconcept of cultural norms and the relationship among culture, cultural norms andinternational relations from perspective of constructivism, to reveal the influence ofculture and norms on international relations. Chapters III and IV explore theAmericanization, indicating the effects and meaning of American cultural norms.Cultural path has become a new method of maintenance of U.S. hegemony, such asideology and value union, human rights diplomacy and interventionist, output ofdemocracy, and the color revolutions. To be studied in Chapter V, the problemsencountered by the United States in the process of outward-Americanization will bediscussed. As a result, there is no necessary conflict between different countries orcivilizations, but the internationalization of U.S. cultural norms and norms created thiskind of conflict. This also shows that not only is cultural norms a tool of U.S.hegemony, but also created a crisis of U.S. hegemony. Chapter VI analyzes the futuredirection of hegemony, including the moderation between U.S. and Islamic countries,the changes of U.S. involvement and governance, etc.