{"id":755,"date":"2025-09-09T10:11:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T10:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/?p=755"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:47:14","slug":"driver-of-economic-globalisation-hegemony-or-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/driver-of-economic-globalisation-hegemony-or-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver of Economic Globalisation: Hegemony or Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n
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The Driver of Economic Globalisation is shaped by hegemony, fuelled by technology, and strongly influenced by the US as a hegemonic globaliser.<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Hegemony V Technology as Drivers of Economic Globalisation<\/h2>\n

The role of global hegemonic power, vis-a-vis technological innovation, in driving globalisation has been the subject of much debate and discussion in contemporary times.<\/p>\n

Most discussions on economic globalisation are associated with various geopolitical developments like the breakup of the Soviet Union, the formation of the European Union, the coming together of Germany, east and west, the economic emergence and growth of China and India, economic liberalisation in the developing and emerging economies and the tremendous advances that have occurred in areas of technology, especially communication technology. Whilst the role of hegemonic power is not brought up regularly in such discussions, there is little doubt of the role of hegemonic power, especially of the U.S. hegemony, in the spread of economic and cultural globalisation in recent decades. Hegemony in the Realist tradition in international relations is understood as dominance, backed up by active domination, as illustrated by the method adopted by the Soviet Union to exercise control over Eastern Europe and the United States over the capitalist world during the cold war. Antonio Gramsci on the other hand refers to hegemony as consensual domination, wherein a particular class or social group achieves domination through cultural or intellectual leadership.<\/p>\n

Whilst the beginning of the contemporary phase of globalisation is often attributed to the breakup and fragmentation of the Soviet Union, it is appropriate to recognise that this development coincided with and facilitated the growth of a unipolar world, dominated by American hegemony. The power and influence of the United States has for all practical purposes become the defining feature of global affairs. One American aircraft carrier battle group can project more force than many of the world\u2019s armies put together. With a crew of 5600 soldiers and 85 combat aircraft, it can travel half way across the world in just two weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n

The Hegemony of the US<\/h2>\n

The economic growth of China notwithstanding, the U.S. economy continues to produce practically one third of the global produce. About 70% of the noble laureates in areas of medicine, science and economics carry out their research in the United States. The country accounts for approximately half of global internet traffic. Spending just 3% of its GDP on defence, its defence budget, exceeds the combined military expenditure of all other countries in the world.<\/p>\n

The United States, on account of its ability to impose its rules on the global economic system can be considered to be a hegemonic power. Hegemonic powers, in addition to setting the rules and regulations of the system, also incentivise other nations to accept rules by supplying public goods. It is not possible to supply international public goods, like free trade, global security, or a monetary system without the willingness of a nation to absorb disproportionate costs; the United States supplies such goods on account of the benefits it obtains from other countries to play by its rules. Such goods include a WTO controlled economic and financial order, a World Bank controlled capital flow system, an IMF controlled exchange rate system, a UN controlled global political order and a NATO controlled global security order.<\/p>\n

The global war on terrorism, taken up by the United States in earnest from 2001 to 2008 illustrates the ways in which the United States uses its power to govern the world in a hegemonic manner. Hegemonic governance and the utilisation of a superior unipolar position in the global system are based upon cultural, ideological and material power. All these dimensions were required for governance within the context of the global war on terrorism.<\/p>\n

Globalisation, when it concerns the impact of economic, political, information related and social influences across national borders is thus primarily an expression of U.S. hegemony. The protection provided by the United States to Europe and Asia from potentially destructive security and arms races prevents various European and Japanese countries from developing nuclear deterrents, ensures the flow of oil at reasonable prices, controls nuclear weapon proliferation and facilitates global economic activity. Many people thus believe that globalisation is little more than the expression of American hegemony and that its flow will be significantly retarded without American support.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Technology driven Globalisation<\/h2>\n

The facilitation of globalisation by American hegemony notwithstanding, it is also important to appreciate the role of technological advancements in the development of the phenomenon. Globalisation, many experts feel, cannot be attributed to a single driving force but should be considered to be catch-all concept that incorporates a wide range of forces. A variety of new general purpose technologies, like ICT, biotechnology and new material, have been seen to intensify transfer of knowledge between nations and result in globalisation of technology.<\/p>\n

New technologies are very clearly playing an extremely important role in the facilitation of globalisation. The transfer of material, men, funds and information is being facilitated by computers, satellites, the Internet and televisions. Such transfer is giving rise to knowledge diffusion at a rate that has never been experienced in the past. International trade and direct investments are increasing steadily on the back of rapidly evolving technological systems. IT for example is acknowledged to be a driving factor in the globalisation process. Advancements in Internet based tools are facilitating efficiency gains in various economic sectors across the globe, even as globalisation is accelerating changes in technology. Moore\u2019s law in fact predicts the doubling of computer power every 18 to 24 months on account of swift evolution of microprocessor technology. Gilder\u2019s law predicts the doubling of communications power every 6 months on account of advances in fibre optic network technologies and a consequent bandwidth explosion. Such technological advancements have resulted in tremendous reductions in cost and massive increases in quantity and speed.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n

The Impact of US Hegemony and Technology in Globalisation<\/h2>\n

It is evident from the preceding discussion that the emergence and development of global American hegemony has, through the creation of a unipolar system and the diffusion of a capitalist market oriented economy, especially in the erstwhile centralised-control nations, accelerated the spread of globalisation in a way that could not be imagined during the cold war. It is but appropriate to recognise the role of technological advancements in the spread of such globalisation. Technological advancements, especially in the areas of communication technology, travel, and to a great extent defence, have enabled the United States to enforce its hegemony through military, cultural and economic initiatives, bringing the people of erstwhile politically and economically distant nations into one integrated market economy under the overarching oversight of the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acadex.biz\/acadex-knowledge-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}