ABSTRACT
The chapter provides a broader context to understand hegemony by the distinction between material globalisation and ideational universalism. Contrary to expectations in the 1980s – classical and neo-realism foresaw a relative decline of the US and did not allow for the possibility of super-hegemony, while neoliberalism regarded any hegemony as being less possible because of global interdependence and instead looked forward to an ‘after hegemony’ world – the US liberal super-hegemony emerged after the Cold War's end. This chapter argues that this renewed hegemony rested on the seeming culmination of the centuries-long trend of converging material globalisation and ideational universalisation. But the central structural element of the current world is the divergence between material globalisation and ideational universalism – the former continuing its ascendance while the latter declines. This mismatch leads to an erosion of the balance between entropy and an organising force, which again makes hegemony less possible. To return possibility of hegemony, great powers need to reshape the realities of the world – either by re-introducing strong universal ideas or by materially de-globalising it. Alternatively, they will have to learn to cope in the emerging global non-universal world with all its entropy and diversity.
