Diplomats, Elites, and Hegemony: Failures of Global Governance in Historical and Contemporary Perspective

About

Speaker: Jonah Stuart Brundage, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Security Program

Why do certain states, at certain points in time, establish leadership and governance over regional or global systems of states? This seminar contributes to explaining this process of hegemony by emphasizing cases in which it failed to occur despite the presence of the necessary military and economic conditions. In particular, the speaker will present a historical case study of British diplomacy in eighteenth-century Europe, showing that Britain failed to become a regional hegemon at this time despite its unrivalled military and economic capabilities.

Explaining this case highlights the extent to which becoming a hegemon requires legitimacy, not just material power. However, the speaker also will show that legitimacy is explained, in turn, by its own set of power relations. Specifically, one condition under which states recognize each other as legitimate is the existence of socially similar elites within those states: that is, elites with similar social backgrounds who control domestic institutions (especially foreign policy institutions) through similar means. Britain failed to become hegemonic in eighteenth-century Europe, in part, because its foreign policy elite defined itself in ways that clashed with the social character of elites in other major states. The seminar will conclude by considering how Britain did become a hegemonic power in the nineteenth century, and by discussing possible failures of hegemony in more contemporary contexts—including the United States today.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Contact

For more information, email the International Security Program Assistant at susan_lynch@harvard.edu.