The United States as Global Leader, Global Power, and Status-Consistent Power?

Abstract

More than a generation ago, status inconsistency theory enjoyed moderate prominence in the annals of empirical international relations (IR). It possessed some face validity, an evident theoretical structure, and could be operationalized. Yet, it died out for several decades after a number of studies were published in the 1960s and early 1970s. Why IR research programs die is an interesting question in its own right but the present chapter is concerned with its resuscitation in the form of this volume’s project on major power status inconsistency. My assignment is to discuss the new theory’s application to the United States, with the understanding that I regard the United States as a global system leader, which makes it a rather special major power. Only one major power can occupy this role at any given point in time. The editors’ data analysis shows that the United States has been a status-consistent power from their perspective since 1945. I am less confident of that conclusion because global system leaders have persistent problems with more than one type of status inconsistency. One in particular is that their lead in military capabilities exceeds and tends to outlast their economic lead. They thus appear to be quite powerful, both to themselves and to others, when it comes to power projection capacity but much less so when it comes to financing the maintenance of the global structure that they build to frame the type of global order they most prefer.KeywordsGross Domestic ProductSystem LeaderMilitary ExpenditureMajor PowerHome RegionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.