In Joseph Meads article “The Return of Geopolitics” he
talks about how the study of international relations is changing to be focused
on Geography. In it he talks about how countries like China Iran and Russia had
not accepted the geopolitical settlement that occurred after the cold war
(Mead). He also writes that Americans have “False Sense of Security” with these
countries because we as Americans think that they are changed to liberal
capitalist states and no geopolitical problems would occur (Mead). I will argue
how Mead is wrong when he mentions that America is feeling a false sense of
security after the cold war.
The best example I can come up with for this is China.
Even though they aren’t the liberal democracy the west world is used to, this does
not mean they are not our greatest Allie. In Meads argument he says that China
will not fall second to America in terms of economic power (Mead). I believe
Mead is wrong because without American consumers there is no China. According
to the Observatory of Economic Complexity at MIT America accounts for 385
billion dollars’ worth of goods from China which is the most out of any of
Chinas exports. Also China imports 100 billion dollars’ worth of goods from America.
Because of this statistic America and China depend on each other.
Another country that I do not believe America has to
worry about is Russia. Russia and America have always had tension but I do not
believe it will amount to anything. I believe that both America and Russia are
two countries with very big egos who like to display their great power but I do
not think the citizens of either country will be effected by this ego match. I
believe that Russia is the only great military power besides America and this
is stable (Lecture 10). China is not as powerful militarily because I do not
believe they have enough critical power because most of the people in China are
poor and unhappy. China does have a lot of money but I believe because they are
not a liberal democracy they have problems. Many high ranking military
officials fall out of ranking in China because of corruption (1). This lack of
obedience shows that they are not as strong as they seem to be on paper.
Because of this I do not believe China has enough hard power to compete with America
and Russia.
I believe Meads argument that America all of a sudden
feels some sort of security in the Middle East after the cold war is false. I
justify this because the Middle East has been at war with each other for many years
prior to the cold war (2). I do not believe many Americans thought America winning
the cold war would bring an end to this violence is wrong.
Sources
2.
http://www.economist.com/node/1922472
I think that the ideas you present in your blog are interesting. I am confused though, are you arguing that China is our greatest ally because of what they spend on importing American goods? If you basing the US being allied with a country based on who they export to, then Canada should be the country’s top ally because they annually import $280 billion worth of American goods. While the current leaders of the US and Russia are very egotistic, I believe that the bombastic language of both the leaders have and will continue impact the citizens of the respective countries. Also, I believe that it is incorrect to say China lacks critical power because many Chinese citizens are “poor and unhappy.” Critical power is the ability to marginalize a group in a society and to keep them on the outskirts of society. If citizens in China are unhappy and poor and have a consistent economic and social status, then I believe that China does have a lot of critical power.
ReplyDeleteHi Theo, nice piece, definitely thought provoking. I do have a couple of questions, similar to Taylor's. What exactly is the main argument of this piece? I found it interesting the part about American's feeling secure in the Middle East, and I would have loved for you to elaborate on that more. After thinking about it a bit, I think I would feel more secure if the entire world didn't have nuclear weapons! That way there would be no WAY that anyone would use it.
ReplyDeleteTheo, I thought this blog definitely raises a lot of questions and thoughts. However, like Taylor and Morgan I am confused to what the critical argument is. While I agree China and America are reliant on each other for trade I believe China is more powerful than Russia. Based on population alone China should be taken seriously. While Russia may have a stronger military I believe China could potentially due more than Russia because of how quickly they can produce based off the number of people in the country.
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