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United States Tradition Of Exercising Hegemony Essay

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Interviewer: Hello, Mr. Chomsky. Today I would like to talk to you about your book: Hegemony or Survival. Firstly, let’s start off by having you answer the question of what hegemony is?

Chomsky: Hegemony, by definition, is the leadership or dominance of one international power over all other nations. Moreover, hegemony in the case of the United States is the practice of exercising power, particularly military power, throughout the globe. Now, the aftermath of this United States tradition of exercising hegemony can be seen in almost every region; more recently our hegemony has been demonstrated throughout the Middle East. I have found that Iraq is the best example for demonstrating the dangers of this international policy; because, the United States’ unilateral power was clearly demonstrated in the case of Iraq in this region, and the current effects are evident and devastating. Due to their preventive attacks and their influence the American government was single handedly able to destabilize the region. In fact, I would contend that most of the U.S’s decisions within Iraq acted as a self fulfilling prophecy; where, the vast majority of our policies only increased the degree of suffering in the area.

Militarily our actions resulted in the displacement of thousands of natives; which has been a leading contributor to the current refugee crisis. Additionally, our military intervention resulted in the deaths of thousands of individuals: nearly all of them being Iraqi

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