Building a Case for US Supremacy
31 Aug, 2000 · 413
Sonika Gupta comments on Humphrey Hawksley’s Dragonfire, that represents two core US interests; extension of the Non-Proliferation regime and the China threat theory
In the current indignation regarding George Fernandes’ “endorsement “ of Humphrey Hawksley’s Dragonfire, more significant aspects of the book have been ignored. Hawksley’s earlier book Dragonstrike, written before the South Asian nuclear tests, imagined a war between
China
and
Vietnam
. Post –Pokharan, it is more exciting and, in Hawksley’s opinion, more probable to speculate on a nuclear war in
South Asia
and
China
. One could pertinently ask why so much attention is being paid to a work of fiction. A disproportionate media hype has undoubtedly been generated because of the gaffe by George Fernandes. However, the book is a part of the debate that aims at building a consensus to maintain the status quo in favor of
US
supremacy. Dragonfire, though a work of fiction, represents two core
US
interests; extension of the NPT regime and the
China
threat theory.
US
scholarship has moved from a focus on ‘understanding
China
’ to ‘ managing the rise of
China
’. During the Cold War, the
USSR
, and not
China
was the major threat to world peace. Hence, the
US
threat perception from
China
was not very high. However, post Cold War, the western intelligensia has nurtured a
China
threat theory at all levels, including academics, policy research, and in the popular literature. This has worked as a justification for growing US power which has translated into US led military intervention on humanitarian grounds in trouble spots. It is natural for the
US
to develope a
China
threat perception to maximize its power, the latest example of this being the NMD and the TMD.
US
follows a model of global politics in which power is subordinated to norms and values. To be fair to the
US
, its power maximization may well be necessitated by genuine global and national security concerns. A case in point is that, despite a No First Use declaration being made by
China
, the
US
is not willing to trust it because the
US
has always percieved a gap between
China
’s policy pronoucements and its practices. Hence considerable global and national security concerns may rise from this. But the problem is that US concerns are institutionalised in a manner that excludes participation or even interest articulation by non-western states like
India
.
US
pressure to perpetuate the CTBT outside the
US
despite it being rejected in the
US
legislature is an example of this. Another example to maintain the American supremacy is the assumption that non- western states that possess nuclear weapons are not ‘responsible’ and may well end up destroying one another in a nuclear war. The promotion of
Kashmir
as a nuclear flashpoint is a part of this belief. Here the argument that
India
is a democracy and a responsible nuclear power does not cut any ice. To project the horror of a country being nuked out of existence, when non –western powers like
China
and
India
are allowed to posses nuclear weapons, makes a persuasive argument for retaining the exclusivity of the nuclear club as well as banning further testing by states other than the
US
.
US
portrays certain group of states as “states of concern” in political correct terminology, as being the major threats to world peace. This is where the global policing role of the
US
comes in. One must not underestimate the role of popular literature that projects the
US
as the “good guys”. These are powerful images that sustain ideologies and regimes and no one who has lived through the Cold War can deny this. If public opinion provides the space for a particular country to expand its power endlessly, then at some point it may well demand expansion of that power or assume it as a right as the British did to bear the Englishman’s burden to civilise the world. In fact, if this public sanction for power maximization is justified on moral grounds to maintain world peace then it would not be easy for any party to oppose it.
In the last two decades,
It is the American belief that the
Sustained
So what is the best way to maintain peace if not harmony all around? The
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