Hegemon’s time is over as regards to military superiority. Onset of nuclear era has brought with it a new paradigm known as ‘mutually assured destruction’ (MAD). To circumvent this situation hegemon requires new form of power projection. Enters geoeconomics!
Even historically arm twisting by military means has had its limitations. Mongol Empire that rode through the entire stretch of East and Central Asia to the Eastern Europe has finally gave up its military role and turned into great builders fawning economic & trade centres in many of the cities they conquered.
Destruction metamorphosing into construction afforded such empires to last much longer than they would have done if warpath was chosen. Today’s hegemons are no exceptions to this maxim. For example, British Empire that ruled the waves still continue her hegemony via finance, insurance & trade facilitation functions centred in and around London.
America is best suited for this transformation from her war party mould to geoeconomics play if she really likes it. Look at the span of US Navy in administering “freedom of passage” that cows down any country opting to use anti access & area denial A2AD. Taiwan Strait is a prime example. There again this military grandstanding is used not for military purposes to contest the belligerent but to protect commercial shipping because of the dependence Taiwan has on her import/export trade and the fact that America has pledged to uphold it.
Using US Dollar as medium of exchange as well as store of value is the pole on which American geoeconomics hegemony is built upon. That is only one side of the story. The other side relates to funds transmission and financial communication. SWIFT does both via its network spread across the continents & oceans?
Financing credit is yet another tool in the geoeconomics armoury. Visa & Master Card put together account for almost 90% of the card payments. No wonder these two companies are jointly given a rubric “The global Payment Duopoly”.
This does not mean that the hegemons have become saints overnight. Military is not something hegemons could easily forget let alone get rid of it. There has to be a cunning way to weld together geoeconomics tools with military manoeuvre. Both America and Britain are practising this potent mixture by way of grey zone operations covertly and hybrid Ops overtly. Ukraine war is the illustration for this new found hegemony. Sanctions as geoeconomics tools are placed against Russia and at the same time USA led West is supplying state of art armaments to Ukraine to prosecute her war with Russia!
Cheers!
Muthu Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
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