After Hegemony Summary

Robert Keohane’s After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World of Political Economy addresses the extent of interaction and collaboration between nations, in addition to the contention between nations. He states that in comparison to the rivalry and disagreement, the level of cooperation in global politics is quite low. This is because of a hasty increase of interdependence amongst nations following World War II, which has led not only to the increase of cooperation, but also to an increase strife. With an increase of parties in world politics and the ability to easily communicate and thus develop a system of interdependence, the discord among states has become likened to anarchy due to no dominating authority, or hegemonic leadership. Hegemony can give world politics a semblance of organization. Hegemonic leadership helps to dissipate the anarchy that is international relations, as the United States did after World War II. Cooperation following World War II was much a result of the influence and power the United held, as an effect of spillover from such a …show more content…
Thus, according to Keohane, international regimes do not hold any supreme power over nations. They are based on cooperation and only operate if nations submit and promote the rules. It is unlikely, in theory, that a nation would fall under an international regime if they were not supporters of its policies. This is unless a weaker nation were pressured, which seems plausible, but perhaps I am misunderstanding the context. The United Nations is an example of an international regime, which has been relatively successful, but still comes into conflict with nations not following set regulations, such as North Korea in the present time. While North Korea was admitted to the United Nations, this nation follows very few of the proposed rules and