International Relations Essay -- Political Science

Introduction At the end of WWII in 1945, Western Europe and arguably the entire world looked to the linked States for a recovery plan. Great Britain was loosing control over its colonies, France and Germany had been destroyed by the war, and the Soviet Union was strikeing power. This put the United States in a position of power, the question that arises with this is, does the United States try to gain control as the hegemonic power in the international system? Is there a real necessity in the region of the middle East to gain the hegemonic power in terms of U.S national interest/security? International Relation realists would say of course there is. Within the force field of International Relations there are several paradigms and theories, one of the most enduring paradigms is realism. Realist believe that states are self- interested, power-seeking rational actors, who seek to maximize their security and chances of selection cooperation between states can be explained as functio nal in order to maximize each individual states security. I think that this is right on because if a state does not maintain its sovereignty and express its power in a visible manor other states will attempt to gain control over it it would be the pre-colonial period all over again. This brings us back to the post WWII era- where states are fighting for their sovereignty and the United States has the opportunity to drive the hegemonic power. Becoming the hegemonic power would involve having influence in several strategic regions of the world, one of the most important, and arguably the most important outside of Western Europe, the nub East. Foreign Policy toward the put East pre-WWII was mostly dealing with Great Britain, post-WWII it can be at... ...p//www.jstor.org/stable/1949949Kupchan, Charles. The Persian Gulf and the West the Dilemmas of Security. Boston Allen & Unwin, 1987Lesch, David W.ed. The Middle East and The United States. Boulder, CO Westview Press, 2007 Ovendale , Ritchie. Britain, the United States, and the Transfer of Power in the Middle East, 1945-1962 NY Leicester University Press Seabury, Peter. The League of Arab States Debacle of Regional Arrangement International establishment 3, No. 4 (Nov. 1949) http//www.jstor.org/stable/2703618Sluglett, Peter The Pan-Arab Movement and the Influence of Cairo and Moscow, in A Revolutionary Year The Middle East in 1958, ed. Roger Louis and Roger Owen . novel York I.B. Tauris, Publishers, 2002Spiegel, Steven. Neighborhood Watch, Democracy A Journal of Ideas 4 (2007)http//www.democracyjournal.org/article.php?ID=6520