Counter-Hegemonic Strategies in the Global Economy

Abstract

Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a running debate among international relations scholars about the future of the open liberal economic order. In many ways, however, this debate has generated more heat than light. Little thought has been given to considering the theory and process of great-power revisionism in the global political economy. In the presence of an existing hegemonic order, how would a rational revisionist develop a viable, peaceful counter-hegemonic strategy? This paper considers what a counter-hegemonic approach would look like in the absence of a great-power war. Building on Susan Strange’s concept of structural power, this paper concludes that there is an optimal revisionist sequence to challenge a hegemonic economic order. Such a sequence prioritizes attacking the ideational dimensions of the order before its material dimensions.