The Case for American Power has deep personal undertones and is shaped by Hamid’s experiences and worldview as an American and Muslim-American post 9/11 attacks. The September 11 tragedy and America’s response shaped his interest in foreign policy and his scholarship, which grapples with America’s place in the world and has delved into understanding Islamic radicalization.
The central argument that Hamid makes is that the world needs to support continued American global dominance. To this end, he argues that it is important for America to maintain its political, economic and cultural edge over its competitors. It is important to note that technological prowess does not find mention at length in the book. This is surprising because of the fact that the current US-China competition largely revolves around domination of strategic minerals, materials like rare earths and technologies like semiconductor chips. Hamid however argues that the absence of American global domination will result in a vacuum and will be replaced by a brutal, authoritarian China. This he argues will be far worse than American dominance, despite its quirks and shortcomings. In short, Pax America is good for the world (p. 9), has been better than any previous empire and better than any current alternative (read Russia and China).
To support this view, Hamid argues that the world has been a more peaceful place since America began dominating the world stage after the Second World War. As compared to nineteen large wars between 1823 to 1939, between 1914 and 1939 there were 10 large wars; between 1945 and 2003 this further fell to only five major wars. While many others argued that post 1945 were largely more peaceful—with conflicts taking place in the periphery—due to the advent of nuclear weapons and a bi-polar world. Hamid states that as the preponderance of American power grew, the world became less violent (p. 10).
Hope springs eternal in Shadi Hamid’s book. However, hope is not a strategy. The Case for American Power relies on hope all too often. The central premise of the book is built on the ‘hope’ that the international comity of nations sees the US on balance as a force for good even if far from a perfect superpower and prefers an American hegemony over a world led by Russia and China. He hopes that countries will overlook American excesses in the Korean War, Vietnam War, overthrowing of elected governments across the developing world, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and everything else since the Second World War. Hamid tenuously argues that Russian actions in the Ukraine War and China’s support have proven America to be a more benevolent hegemon.
Hamid, however, has a tough time explaining away continued American military, diplomatic support and arms supplies to Israel which have resulted in the current bombing of Gaza and indiscriminate killing of women and children. Israel’s bombing of Gaza has led to over 67,000 deaths of which more than 20,000 were children and close to 170,000 injuries. To his credit, he does anticipate that the American support to Israel in the Gaza war ‘will stand as the strongest objection to the arguments in this book’. When Hamid argues that America ‘represents the fusion of power and morality’, it is unfathomable how the US can continue to take the high moral ground while arming Tel Aviv’s bombing of Gaza despite (as Hamid writes) the American public not backing America’s support to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Therein lies the rub.
Here again, Hamid resorts to more hope. He blames this on America’s close and unquestioning relationship with Israel, but argues that it is not set in stone. Hamid does not delve into how policy makers could work towards transforming this ‘sacred’ relationship. Instead, he hopes that this will happen as a result of the growing influence of younger Americans. In the introduction to the book, Hamid does accept the overreliance on ‘hope’ in the book, but attributes it to the fact that America has been a democracy which entails that any change has to come from individuals and their actions.
Shadi Hamid makes it very clear that he perceives Russia and China as the greatest threat to the world as we know it since the past few decades. He quite correctly argues that both Moscow and Beijing work in tandem to counter American influence. The book argues that moving away from the US and not working together to strengthen their collective defence has made European countries vulnerable. It is, ironically President Trump’s threat of withdrawing from the Ukraine War and pushing for greater contribution by European powers towards NATO and boosting their collective defence that has got EU members to ramp up their Defence budgets in a bid to address the clear and present challenge posed by a resurgent Moscow enabled by support from Beijing.
While the book makes for an easy read, it does leave many questions unaddressed. Firstly, while making a case for greater American global dominance, the book does not adequately address the growing American turn towards isolationism that has been witnessed under Trump’s Presidency. The book also does not delve into the growing tech-based competition which will be the hallmark for US-China competition in the years to come. America needs to stave off Beijing’s growing dominance in the tech space ranging from rare earths, strategic materials, high power computing, artificial intelligence and semi-conductors if it has to maintain global supremacy.
What shape the power dynamics take over the next few years or decades is anyone’s guess. Will the US be able to hold on to its superiority and maintain status-quo, or will the world shift towards new bi-polarity with America on one side and Russia-China combine on the other? The implications for international security of such a dynamic and how such systemic shifts will pan out are important questions. Shadi Hamid’s book makes an attempt at unpacking some of these important questions. As a reader, the book however, does make one realize that we are living in interesting times.
Arun Vishwanathan is Professor & Head, Department of Security Studies, School of National Security Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Vadodara.