Disruptive Innovation

Empire and occupation also involve two very basic things. In other words, empire and occupation have two basic pillars. For one, there is cultural hegemony. Also, there is capitalism. Coincidentally, the national and state ideology of the United States is capitalism. But we are now espousing an idea that has gone bankrupt and has essentially failed, given that global empire and occupation has also failed. We are now past the age of empires, and we are now in a post-hegemonic world. Hence, everything is in a state of flux and uncertainty. And the underlying logical fallacy or contradiction of our system is that we espouse capitalism in a post-capitalist world. Post-capitalism either means further decline, a return to the kind of chaos we experienced during the Trump years, or socialism. Capitalism itself, as we have mentioned before, consists of three stages, namely, the competitive, imperialistic, and hegemonic. We are reaching the endpoint of the hegemonic stage. As a result, all is flux and uncertainty from this point forward. 

Bourgeoisie liberalism, which was the most predominant economic, political, and social force in the international system over the course of the last couple of centuries, is the same as capitalism. The former is an appearance or guise for the latter. The former mitigates and softens the brutality and cruelty of the latter. To borrow from Mearsheimer: “It is no exaggeration to say that capitalism and liberalism go hand in hand.” The liberal bourgeoisie “pay great attention to the right to own and exchange property, an emphasis that helps explain why liberalism is closely tied to capitalism.” 

There are also immense inequalities in a capitalist system. While liberals “believe that all individuals are equal, they do not believe that this equality requires the government to level the playing field for its citizens.” In a sense, capitalism is all about war and inequality. In order to keep capitalism alive, one must also keep war and inequality alive. In turn, the system is becoming more and more oligarchic in nature as a result of inequality and war. And the natural evolution of oligarchy tends to be towards either populism or tyranny. On the other hand, the “disruptive innovation” which is associated with technology is breaking the traditional barriers to power which have been imposed on everyone by the traditional liberal bourgeoisie power elite. Traditional power will always try to “muscle” their way into keeping power, or it will enforce a set of rules to keep everyone pliant, as Moises Naim highlighted. Or, traditional power will try to persuade or induce people into compliance. 

But globalization and technology changed the game, and in turn, the common barriers to power are now receding as a result of globalization and technology. The truth is that “there is vitality in the East” and as a result, those who are “searching for evidence of a new ascending great power have an easy answer” to borrow from Naim. The focal point of current affairs is now the rise of China in large part. To borrow from Naim: “China’s economy surged ahead through the global recession. Its military capabilities and diplomatic weight continue to expand. Since the mid-1990s, the Asian economies have grown at twice the speed of those of the United States or Europe. Looking ahead, experts differ only on the speed at which the Western economies will be left in the dust.” 

And to fail in adjusting to this structural “decay of power” per se, we are left with a Hobbesian “state of nature” or “war of all against all” given that there is no longer a hegemon who can clamp down on the situation as a result of the failure of the international system.