Rethinking Hegemony

At a time of major geopolitical change, when the position of the United States and the international system it helped create are under sustained challenge, this book could hardly be more timely or significant. Working in the best traditions of informed critical scholarship, Owen Worth has produced an incisive and important analysis of hegemony that will be required reading for anyone wanting to understand a world in transition.' - Mark Beeson, The University of Western Australia 'Worth provides an in-depth, historically sensitive and conceptually refined intellectual history of a major concept in contemporary IR and IPE analysis. While sympathetic to its Gramscian usage, he also shows how the idea of hegemony draws on several competing intellectual currents, with very positive results.' - Randall Germain, Carleton University, Canada 'This book skilfully addresses the challenges of applying the concept of hegemony to International Relations. It combines an interrogation of the concept with a fascinating account of the international system across the ages, including significant debates about neoliberalism, American world order and other issues that occupy the thoughts of students and scholars of the discipline.' - Jonathan Joseph, University of Sheffield, UK

Hegemony has long been a key concept within the study of international politics. This new text re-assesses its various meanings in light of recent world events, and uses core theory to assist a nuanced understanding of its historical importance and contemporary significance in a changing global order.Hegemony has long been a key concept within the study of International Relations, as well as across the social sciences more generally, and a term used by analysts to make sense of contemporary events. Drawing on a rich historical framework, this book traces the different definitions and interpretations of hegemony in world politics and shows that the term continues to be a contested one. It examines and develops traditional ideas about hegemony – from the idea of the strong leading state to the dominance of particular ideologies – through a wide range of approaches including hegemonic stability theory and the work of Antonio Gramsci. Exploring issues such as the role of the state, the changing influence of regionalism and the emergence of counter-hegemonic movements, this book argues that a more nuanced understanding of hegemony is necessary in order to understand the construction of the contemporary world order. Considering a wide range of case studies throughout – from the reputation of the United States as an international leader, to the European Union's regional hegemony and the economic prowess of the so-called BRICS group – this text provides the ideal guide to a multi-faceted term and significant force of both history and the modern age.