Graduation Year
2015
Date of Submission
4-2015
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
International Relations
Reader 1
Jennifer Morrison Taw
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Rights Information
© 2015 Dante R. Toppo
Abstract
Why has the United States, given its status as the sole remaining superpower following its Cold War victory, been unable to translate its preponderance of power into the outcomes it desires? The system established by the United States over the course of the Cold War does not effectively translate its power into influence in the post-Cold War world. In fact, the way US-Soviet competition shaped global affairs created systemic problems, weak and failing states, terrorism, autocracy and human rights abuse, that cannot be solved by the mechanisms of influence the US relied upon to win the Cold War. However, precisely these issues now dominate the American foreign policy agenda as its strategic objective shifted from defeating communism to maintaining the stability of the liberal world order that resulted from communism’s defeat. The United States, reliant on Cold War era mechanisms of influence, lacks the tools to accomplish these new objectives because these mechanisms were designed to exploit or accept the problems of statehood that now plague the liberal world order. Therefore, for the United States to make effective use of its abundance of power, it must either change its tools or its objectives.
Recommended Citation
Toppo, Dante R., "The Tragedy of American Supremacy" (2015). CMC Senior Theses. 1141.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1141
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Defense and Security Studies Commons, International Relations Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, Other International and Area Studies Commons, Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons, Political Theory Commons
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