World Systems Approach

In today’s society, most Americans lack the ability to understand politics and what they actually mean and do. Most people who live in America mainly care about what’s happening inside the country, rather than what is going on outside the country. This unfortunately is a major problem in the world today because understanding foreign relations is vital to America’s prosperity, wealth, and achievement. There are any ways in which someone can study foreign affairs; such as gender, race, world-systems, national security, power, cultural and natural identity, and bureaucratic politics. Personally, I found the world systems approach to the study of US foreign relations to be most enlightening because it shows how all countries have certain functions

For example, McCormick states that “ North America, Japan, and Europe constitute the core and specialize in electronics, capital goods, and finance; the LDCs of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Caribbean specialize in raw materials and single crop agriculture” ( Merrill and Paterson 4). This shows how different countries, with the resources that are available to them, actually control their standing and power in the free world. Another reason why I found the world systems approach to US foreign relations very enlightening is because of the concept of hegemony. McCormick says that hegemony “means that one nation possesses such supremacy, military might, and political leadership, that no other power can prevail against it” (Merrill and Paterson 5). With the capitalist free world, many countries have the ability to decide its own future. For example, two states that became hegemonic centers of the world were Great Britain and The United States. McCormick states that “in each instance, world war was crucial to the formation of hegemony” (Merrill and Paterson 6). War is the most powerful form of foreign relations which is why the world systems approach enlightened me because Great Britain and The United States transformed from a rentier nation to a warfare state. Gender, race, national security, and bureaucratic politics don’t spend as much time on the whole world and the vital roles each country plays in