Political Science

As the leader of a country, the foreign policy direction would align with hegemony. As a strategy on foreign policy, hegemony is an institutionalized practice of special rights and responsibilities conferred on a state with the resources to lead. There are two conceptualizations of hegemony. One is as the exercise of leadership over other states and the other is the exertion of power over other states. These emerged because of the achievement of hegemony through either consensus or force. Leadership through consensus is less susceptible to controversy, resistance and failure than power through force given the contemporary context of international relations. Exerting power over other states, especially through force cannot be sustained by the country especially given the relative military strengths of other states. Leadership through consensus is more viable by bestowing legitimacy on the country as the leader. The countrys foreign policy follows the exercise of leadership on other states by influencing consensus over a new system led by the country.

Although hegemony is rarely seen in the positive light, the economic and political goals justify the pursuit of hegemonic foreign policy. Economically, the goal of the country is to sustain growth by expanding its market. The country has a well-developed industrial sector. However, the saturation of the market relative to the level of production together with available markets with high demand for these products created the opportunity to achieve the economic goal of the country. Moreover, the country does not have sufficient sources of oil to support its industries. The boundary between neighboring countries holds untapped oil reserves but the countries are in conflict over control with the countries not having sufficient resources to fund exploration and extraction. The encompassing political goal of the country is to ensure peace and security not only in the country but also the region. The country has sufficiently trained armed forces. However, political instability in neighboring countries poses a threat to regional stability. The country also has a strong civil society and a pool of intellectuals running civil society infrastructures. The country can provide some resources and capabilities needed by neighboring countries and neighboring states can contribute to the achievement of the goals of the country.

The foreign policies to be implemented for the state are two-fold. One is the engagement in multilateral trade agreements and establishment of regional economic cooperation. The other is the creation of a mutual defense assistance agreement that involves resources and capabilities sharing for inter-military training and the obligation to lend aid in case of security threats faced by each of the states that are party to the agreement. These policies are in pursuance of the countrys economic and political goals. These also comprise mutually reinforcing policies since economic growth requires a stable political environment and political development is backed by sustainable economic growth.

Being a hegemon fosters the pursuit of these policies. Playing a hegemon involves initiating talks with neighboring countries to seek their participation in economic cooperation and to negotiate terms mutually favorable to the parties but pursue the interests of the country. The trade agreement would involve terms that would allow the country to gain sufficient influence on material resources. This is expressed by the theory of hegemonic stability, which involves material resource preponderance, particularly targeting the control of raw materials, capital, markets, and production of valued commodities. Key to the economic cooperation is the country gaining significant stakes in the development of the oil field bordering neighboring countries and liberalization of markets. The initiation of talks and the finalization of the mutual defense assistance agreement also forms part of the hegemons role. This time, the focus of the agreement is on providing assistance in developing the political infrastructures in exchange for allowing tacit influence on the type of infrastructures to develop or strengthen. The infrastructures are also those perceived by the neighboring countries as good relative to the countrys democratic systems. This applies the concept of infrastructural hegemony.

Although playing the role of a hegemon, the direction is towards multilateral action. The success of the hegemonic foreign policies is the achievement of consensus over the establishment of a new system under the leadership of the hegemon. This involves cooperation as the favorable reaction from the leaders of the neighboring states. The multilateral action aligns with the concept of cooperation hegemony, which involves the practice of power-sharing and power aggregation among the cooperating countries to provide a semblance of collectivism but with the hegemon exercising mutually recognized influence over decision-making and agreements. Influence rests on the benefits extended to neighboring states by the hegemon. Consensus and cooperation are achieved through economic and political incentives that the hegemonic country uniquely provides with the guarantee of the hegemon.

There are challenges and opportunities for the country with its leader as a hegemon. The challenges to the country are the burden of carrying the costs required including the provision of financial aid and other assistance to neighboring states as part of the agreement as well as the risk to citizens being targeted by opposition or radical groups in neighboring countries. However, by ensuring consensus and cooperation to achieve regional economic and security cooperation under the leadership of the hegemonic state, these challenges should be addressed. There are also opportunities to the country from having a hegemon leader, such as increase in economic or national wealth, improved social mobility from better inter-state relations, creation of work and business opportunities, and other similar outcomes.