« Tehran Pics | Main | Oral Exams »
November 27, 2007
Hegemony
In the olden times, when the geographical and geo-political knowledge was quite limited, "hegemony" was itself a geographically (and idealogically) limited term. The Chinese knew little about the world beyond Yaxartes. The Iranians considered Xuuenires (the Greater Iran) to be the centre of the world, and the Romans saw the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum and thought of it as their world. So, the Han were the hegemons of their world, Sasanians the hegemons of Central and West Asia, and Romans held hegemony over the Mediterranean and those parts of Europe that were counted.
So, in the age of communication and information, does a power need to be in physical control of all territories to be considered a real hegemon?
Posted by Khodadad at November 27, 2007 04:42 PM
Comments
How do we define "a power"? I think that big multi-national corporations have more real hegemony in the world today than most governments. The Bush administration has certainly been far more a servant to such entities that it has been to the American people.
Posted by: David at November 30, 2007 09:06 PM