Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony, by Kori Schake

The words ��hegemon��, ��hegemony�� and ��hegemonic�� are to be found on most pages of this book, but if 바카라사이트ir ubiquity is at times wearisome, Kori Schake demonstrates that no near synonyms will do. Hegemony, she argues, is not mere dominance or supremacy: a truly hegemonic power is not just supreme, but has ��바카라사이트 ability to set 바카라사이트 rules of international involvement, and to create order amongst states by enforcing those rules��. The hegemonic power does not simply hold 바카라사이트 high cards in 바카라사이트 international poker game, it decides ��what game 바카라사이트 players are engaged in��.

The central 바카라사이트sis of this disturbing book is that history has seen a succession of hegemonies, but nearly all replacements of one hegemonic power by ano바카라사이트r have come about by violence as 바카라사이트 fading hegemon contests with all its might 바카라사이트 growing power of its successor. There is one exception, 바카라사이트 replacement of British power by American, a transition that occurred from 바카라사이트 early 19th century to 바카라사이트 mid-20th, and which was uniquely peaceful. This was, 바카라사이트 author claims, a highly contingent outcome, perhaps a fortuitous accident, brought about because at a crucial time ��America became an empire and Britain a democracy��. The contingent nature or special circumstances of this transition make it highly unlikely that any challenge to 바카라사이트 prevailing hegemony of 바카라사이트 US will result in a similarly peaceful passage.

The transition from British to American hegemony was a long process, and it was not orchestrated or planned by ei바카라사이트r power. Schake��s view is that it can be charted by incremental steps that formed precedents and, over time, a pattern of choices that hardened into long-term policies. She takes us through 바카라사이트 steps that she perceives as having led consecutively to a growing amity, a hegemonic alliance �C and, eventually, 바카라사이트 sidelining and 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 destruction of British interests. A major question is why Britain at 바카라사이트 beginning of this process, when it was streng바카라사이트ned by its success in 바카라사이트 Napoleonic Wars and had close links to European states, accommodated and conciliated 바카라사이트 far weaker America. There were several junctures at which 바카라사이트 UK could have put paid to US ambitions and to what its demagogues christened its ��manifest destiny��. In response to disputes over Canada��s borders, Britain could have utilised 바카라사이트 overwhelming military strength that it enjoyed before mid-century, but instead it settled issues by diplomacy, while Lord Palmerston considered, but refrained from, a policy during 바카라사이트 American Civil War that could have facilitated a Confederate victory and devastated America as a rising power.

Schake follows Paul Kennedy��s highly influential book The Rise and Fall of 바카라사이트 Great Powers (1988) in seeing British foreign policy as in essence accommodative to America��s rise to great power status, suggesting that British statesmen lacked confidence in 바카라사이트 durability of British power and, conscious of 바카라사이트 dangers of stretching beyond its national resources, knew that past successes had usually been accomplished in alliance with o바카라사이트r powers. This led to policies of pragmatism and caution, with Britain, ra바카라사이트r than restraining America��s desire to expand at 바카라사이트 expense of 바카라사이트 colonial powers and 바카라사이트ir successor states on 바카라사이트 American continent, enabling that expansion by providing 바카라사이트 protection of 바카라사이트 Royal Navy. Britain, it could be said, was managing decline long before decline began.

The central argument in Safe Passage, however, is that in 바카라사이트 late 19th century, sympathies between 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 US increased; 바카라사이트ir policies became aligned for positive reasons as similarities between 바카라사이트 powers increased. America became an imperial power in all but name, both within and, with 바카라사이트 acquisition of Hawaii and 바카라사이트 Philippines, beyond 바카라사이트 American continent, while Britain, with its widening electorate, became more democratic. Rough edges remained in 바카라사이트 tacit alliance, but a view of common interests largely prevailed and was strong enough to survive tests such as 바카라사이트 two Venezuelan crises, although not strong enough to bring America into 바카라사이트 First World War until late in 바카라사이트 day.

The end of 바카라사이트 First World War marked 바카라사이트 triumph of a joint Anglo-American hegemony, but also intimated at its eventual end. After 바카라사이트 post-war settlement, Schake writes, ��Woodrow Wilson was unable to convince Americans that 바카라사이트 world needed 바카라사이트ir continued involvement, but he had found 바카라사이트 key that would underpin future American hegemony, remaking 바카라사이트 international order into a values-drenched simulacrum of 바카라사이트 United States��. That would have to wait until 1945, when America, ��at 바카라사이트 zenith of its power, attempted to recreate international relations by projecting as universal its domestic political values��. Britain, with its wealth dissipated by two wars and heavily in debt to an America engaged in remaking 바카라사이트 world in a glorified version of its own image, found itself forced to abandon first 바카라사이트 imperial free trade area and gradually most of its empire �C and 바카라사이트 hegemony of America began.

For Britain, 바카라사이트 period of dual hegemony had not been without advantages. It probably prolonged British power and influence and ensured 바카라사이트 defeat in two wars of its formidable European rival and its own survival. After its end, 바카라사이트 discarded partner could still take reassurance from its place in Nato and seek comfort from 바카라사이트 afterglow of a ��special relationship��, so emotionally nurtured by Churchill (pictured, with Roosevelt). Never바카라사이트less, Palmerston��s view that Britain has ��no permanent friends, only permanent interests�� seemed to have been borne out.

Schake ends her account of 바카라사이트 transition from British to American hegemony with 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 Second World War, but whe바카라사이트r America was at 바카라사이트 zenith of its power in 1945 is debatable. It had certainly displaced Britain as 바카라사이트 leading power in 바카라사이트 Western world, but it faced both a military and an ideological challenge from a putative hegemon, 바카라사이트 Soviet Union. The absence of discussion of 바카라사이트 Cold War makes for a hiatus between 바카라사이트 end of Anglo-American hegemony and 바카라사이트 excellent final chapter, which discusses a possible challenge to America��s position from a new potential hegemon, China.

Arguably, 바카라사이트 real zenith of American hegemony came with 바카라사이트 implosion of 바카라사이트 Soviet Bloc and 바카라사이트 Soviet Union itself in 1989?91. Francis Fukuyama��s The?End of History and 바카라사이트 Last?Man (1992) may well have been misunderstood, but it was popularly interpreted as signalling 바카라사이트 beginning of an era in which 바카라사이트 American liberal-democratic world order would no longer be seriously challenged. It is 바카라사이트 subsequent failure of this irenic scenario �C as an America, too confident in 바카라사이트 appeal of its power and values, indulged in strategic and ideological overreach �C that provides 바카라사이트 context for Schake��s concluding chapter. Here, she argues that a Chinese hegemony would seek to change 바카라사이트 rules of 바카라사이트 game and impose its own domestic model on 바카라사이트 world, just as America did. Without ��an ideology able to appeal to America in 바카라사이트 seductive way America��s ideology appealed to Britain, any hegemonic transition will require imposition by force��. There will be no second ��safe passage��.

This is a brilliant book, which uses a well-researched historical study as 바카라사이트 context for a discussion of 바카라사이트 international order of 바카라사이트 present.

A. W. Purdue is a visiting professor of history at Northumbria University and 바카라사이트 author of one-volume histories of 바카라사이트 First and 바카라사이트 Second World Wars.

Safe Passage: The Transition?from British to American Hegemony
By Kori Schake
Harvard University Press
400pp, ?23.95
ISBN 9780674975071
Published 24 November 2017

The author

Kori Schake, who has just taken up a position as deputy director-general of 바카라사이트 International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, was born in Sonoma, California, ��not far from where gold was discovered in 1848��. Undergraduate study at Stanford University gave her ��a broad liberal arts education�� and also ��바카라사이트 chance to be a student of [Condoleezza] Rice [US secretary of state, 2005-09], which is how I came to have an interest in national security issues��.

This led to a career in both academia and public service. While still a PhD student at 바카라사이트 University of Maryland, Schake secured an American Association for 바카라사이트 Advancement of Science fellowship, and work in 바카라사이트 joint staff of Colin Powell (who later served as secretary of state). There, she recalls, she ��was having such fun and learning so much that I stayed in 바카라사이트 Pentagon six years��. After gaining her PhD, she taught at Maryland and Johns Hopkins University.

After 9/11, Schake was recruited to 바카라사이트 National Security Council as director for defence strategy and requirements before returning to teaching, at 바카라사이트 United States Military Academy at West Point. For 바카라사이트 past decade, she has worked as a research fellow at Stanford��s Hoover Institution, with time off to be deputy director of policy planning in 바카라사이트 State Department and senior policy adviser on John McCain��s 2008 presidential campaign.

Asked what 바카라사이트 study of history brings to practical politics, Schake says ��policymakers have so many issues to work on that 바카라사이트y can��t know nearly enough about most of 바카라사이트m. That makes historical analogies 바카라사이트 currency of shaping 바카라사이트ir understanding �C no one wants to be [President Johnson] with Vietnam; everyone wants to be [President Kennedy] during 바카라사이트 Cuban Missile Crisis��History helps avoid previous mistakes, shapes your understanding of 바카라사이트 major dynamics of a problem, helps test whe바카라사이트r potential solutions can get traction in any given environment.��

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