POLYS 103 Septemer 24 Lecture 14Outline of Last Lecture I. Globalization IssuesII. Comparative AdvantageIII. SpecializationIV. Economies of ScaleV. Free TradeOutline of Current Lecture II. HegemonsIII. MultipolarityIV. BipolarityV. UnipolarityVI. China a rising powerCurrent LectureHegemons: big powerful statesThe dominant subject in politics is about how big/powerful states get along or don't get along. The reasoning tends to be very historical.Powerful states often don't get along, Rising powers fight declining powers. -example, Napoleonic wars, WW1, WW2The United States is a great power today. But we must remember that every great power in history has had a decline.Rising powers of today that could challenge the US are China and Russia.Other rising powers, although not seen as a challenge to the US are-India-Brazil-JapanThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Europe was the head of the hegemons in the past but it had its decline. Now it is rich, but not necessarily big.Nothing says that there has to be only one powerful state in the world at a time.-Multipolarity- there are many powerful states ruling the world at one time-Bipolarity- two powerful states ruling the world-Unipolarity- one powerful state (US has been)There are a lot of Political Science arguments about what effect polarity has on war and stabilityin the world.-Multipolarity cases war: alliances happen and big states fight other big states-Multipolarity cases peace: it is easier to balance the power-Bipolarity cases war: Two big states are always in competition-Bipolarity causes peace: there are clear sides As of now, the world is Unipolar but it could be sliding back to Bipolar and in the future move to Multipolar.Most theorists who argue about the effect of polarity on war are Realists who say -the major states are able to reach globally to other regions-small states do not have that kind of global reach-Big states worry about other big states actions in the worldRealist usually don't agree with other Realists -Offensive Realism: big powers always get into conflict-when big powers are close geographically, they are more likely to go to war-If they are father away, the likeliness of war is less -Defensive Realism: technology has an effect-offensive weapons vs. defensive weapons-offensive weapons are like guns and trucks-defense weapons are like castles and landscape-problem is that weapons are not only offensive, they can be defensive as wellIt is hard to determine the correct theory for something because the historical evidence is limited.These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Liberalism standpoint: States doesn't always fight-there can be cooperation in the world.-US and Soviet Union did cooperate, there was no actual war-The rising and falling of big states does not have to involve wars and killing peopleRussia is not big enough to become a great world power-Russia has doubled in size in terms of their economy but it is still less that the peak of the economy when Russia was part of the Soviet Union during the col d war-Russia is not a global powerChina on the other hand has grown past Russia, and past the economy Russia had during the cold war-Currently, China is 20% of the worlds GDP-It is projected that China will be as big/ bigger than the US soon-from a realists point of view, we should go to war with China, but from an economical point of view, this is not likely to happen because:-there is a lot of trade between China and the US-China is 30% of the manufacturing goods that US buysDoes China own the United States?-no, China owned only 22.5% of the total US debt which is only 8%-the biggest chunk of US debt is owned by AmericansStates want to be hegemons for various reasons-don't have to worry so much about getting invaded -Chinas military has grown-the military budget has grown steadily and greatly-But US is not matching the increase in spending because US already has a huge budget for the military-Geographically China isn't set up well for defense-There is only one side to the ocean -This ocean side is close to a lot of islands and land that the US has military bases and and has good relations with the countries-China can view this as a threat from the US-main reason US has military bases close to China is because it views China as a possible threatOther reasons states want to be hegemonsThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.-they want to have influence on how the world works. Sets up rules on how the world works-Conflict can be see in who gets to make the rules of the world.-If there is war, it will be over influence and control in the world, not over territory. These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a