A number of scholars have argued that the concept of hegemony is outdated. At the same time, in a world where both inequality and development are often found between conflict and freedom, it is impossible to completely drop hegemony from the political discourse. With great powers such as China or Russia, and emerging powers, such as Turkey or Brazil, it is contestable to characterize the US as a hegemon. Why? One the one hand, persisting problems in US domestic and foreign policy hardly allow us to call this country a hegemon. On the other hand, some of the above-mentioned nations have recently been showing more than just regional ambitions. One can admit US supremacy or designate the US as the only superpower, without conceding its unchallenged global hegemony In this paper an attempt has been made to prove, using the prism of structural realism, that in contemporary world politics there is no hegemon. Besides, the author asserts the importance of modern state in a world dominated by non-state actors and corporations.
Keywords: Great powers, EU, hegemony
Adrian Pogacian | ReThinking Europe
Adrian Pogacian is PhD candidate at MGIMO University and holds a MA in Politics and Economics in Eurasia from the same institute. He is interested in power politics, Russian foreign policy and the role and influence of the non-state actors in promoting foreign policy. He has over 10 years of experience in Romanian politics, both, at local and national level. He launched, also, a think-tank called ReThinking Europe, exclusively dedicated to Eastern European issues.