Politically, hegemony means dominance, control, dictating of other nations and peoples into one’s way of thinking. When a nation promotes these ideals they fall into the rim of empire building and political, social and economic global manipulation. Empire building was not a structural development in the United States. George Washington, the first president of our Republic created a policy on non-interventionism which lasted into the 1800s. The Monroe Doctrine was designed in 1832 to stop European imperialism into the Americas. Our early leaders were fearful of European colonialism and did not see that course for ourselves. However, imperial expansion began to slip into the saga of our history as populations moved westward encroaching onto Native American lands. When this occurred political and economic leaders of the time pushed an agenda among inhabitants of early America that they had the right, political and divine power to aggressively take what they wanted. In this light–the concept of “Just Wars” began. That is, we know what is good for the nation and the world.
This concept gradually filtered into the political and social structure of our society. We truly believed that it was our interest to direct movement of other nations and people. Soon, the sermon preached by John Winthrop of the “City Upon a Hill,” was usurped from its original thesis that if we did not obey God’s covenant we would exposed to the world as hypocrites; to the argument that we should direct the interest of other people and nations to create a dynamic of American hegemony.
Today, we have over 956 military bases throughout the world. Since the Spanish-American War in 1898 we have virtually been in perpetual conflicts and wars that have led to the deaths of millions of soldiers and innocent civilians. These conflicts have led peace activists like Martin Luther King to declare that “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world is our own government.” NHP argues that we are part of the world’s body of nations. We cannot function as a unipolar entity; rather we must align with friendship and respect to labor within the streams of a multipolar community. A world of global peace, security and preservation.
