The Patterns of Rising and Fall Amongst Nations - Essay Example

s In an attempt to find patterns of rise and fall amongst nations, Amy Chua has managed to find patterns which explainthese trends. Chua is of the opinion that all nations which achieved dominance underwent similar experiences, also these nations underwent similar experiences even when they faced drastic downfall. Therefore, based on these experiences, Chua has identified indicators which point towards the trajectory these state would take to reach a destination marked by these inherent trends. Though apparently, her hypothesis seems simple enough, yet a critical analysis indicates several complexities attached to the apparent trends indentifies by her. Her hypothesis argues that a state turns into a hyperpower (a state of influence even higher than a superpower) only after it encompasses all ethnic and religious elements under an umbrella where all may co-exist in their own form without any pressure to conform. This, in her view, is the kind of democracy which would pave way for a journey inclined towards turning the state into a hyperpower. Similarly, once this diversity in terms of ethnicity or religion turns into conflict for existence and influence, the state is bound to lose its power and collapse. In order to critically analyze the hypothesis, the socio-economic scenario of the present day China would be taken as a case study and an insight into the ethnic and religious conflicts would be taken to see the deterrence behind China achieving its status of hyperpower. Prior to applying Chua`s hypothesis on present day China, the current power struggle dynamics in China need to be analyzed. Though apparently China is rising exponentially as one of the global economic powers of the world, it is also an undeniable fact the internal dynamics in China pose a threat to the long term development goal of the state, and owing to these internal dynamics, various negative indicators emerge which lead China towards a saturation point. These very internal dynamics deter China from reaching its true potential, despite diplomatic excellence and economic dominance in the world, its position isn`t as close to being a hyper-power as it should be. Since the past 30 years or so, China has been aiming to improve its internal development indicators and its progress in terms of dealing with its domestic issues (Hao & Cho 11). Yet, it`s a given fact that even today China faces many problems at home which include poverty, class gap, inequality, corruption, social reforms, demographic challenges, ageing population and environmental issues. However, the most imminent and pressing issues continue to be a lack of religious freedom and human rights. In other words, the unrest in different regions like Tibet and Xinjiang is a pressing issue, where internal conflicts amongst multi-racial groups are creating conditions of enmity in the state, thus deterring its status as a hyperpower. Therefore, China despite its economic exponential progress is immensely concerned about its internal stability. Though China is influencing and attracting many markets and investors towards it, it still continues to be a reclusive state which still has to struggle a lot to turn into a hyperpower. In this context, Chua is of the view that a hyperpower inherently is bound to rise by fulfilling certain pre-requisites before its status as a hyperpower declines, again after revealing certain indicators. Based on her research, Chua argues that in order to rise as a powerful state in the modern era, the hyperpower tends to be capable not just in terms of military might but also be embracive of multicultural elements which the state must borrow from multi-lingual and religiously diverse community. In other words, Chua stressed on the significance on human capital. She is implying that if a state will offer a conductive environment to the multi-ethnic human capital to flourish as their own individual selves without any pressure to conform to the dominant culture, the state will create the environment for progress and growth. All of the magnificent seven powers which flourished in the past managed to create space for diverse people from vast and far-off lands to add to the progress of the state. Therefore, strategic tolerance, according to Chua`s views and research, is the key to success. In case of China, its regional instability is forcing the state to compromise over the regional and border disputes with neighboring countries. In disputed frontier areas, domestic instability tends to become a driver for confrontation. Being a multi ethic state is a threat to China’s national integration, which may add to instability in these disputed regions as well, and this very perception is shaping China`s adversarial policy towards the minorities. The presence of economic differences amongst the people, environmental destruction and lack of infra-structure in minority regions imply that China tends to suppress the independence movements. The biggest issue that China has to face is the separatist movements, and ethnic violence going on in some regions, such as the one in Xinjiang. Xingjian is a vulnerable region from geopolitical point of view, since it borders with eight other countries including Tajikistan, India and Pakistan. Since 9/11, Pakistan is an important actor in fighting the war against terrorism, which makes it a priority for China to exploit and suppress it`s insurgent movements going on in Xingjian. China is undergoing a policy to aggressively suppress them. Therefore, this very policy is deterring China from rising as a hyperpower, as advocated via Chua`s hypothesis. (Hao & Cho 41) This conflict has turned into an armed one since the ETIM is one of the more extreme groups founded by Uighurs, the Turkic-speaking ethnic majority in Xinjiang, seeking an independent state called East Turkestan. Its stated goals are the independence of East Turkestan and the conversion of all Chinese people to Islam. ETIM has claimed responsibility for over 200 acts of terrorism. Although the ETIM seeks to establish an independent Islamic regime, the majority of Uighurs does not support an Islamic state. Instead of creating conditions to allow maximum autonomy with these Uighurs and taking them into confidence, China started pursuing a policy of confrontation and suppression. China perceives the ethnic Muslim minorities in Xingjian as a threat not just for disseminating terrorism, but also for inflicting separatist movements. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, when terrorism was not the main issue in the global arena, it was relatively difficult for China to impede and suppress the minority uprising. Reason being the authoritarian style of governance in China has always been a critical subject for the humanitarians of the west, and whenever China has put in efforts to suppress the minorities, it has faced rigorous opposition and critiques from world human rights activists. For this reason, China hasn`t been able to take the position of world leader where the entire globe extends its consideration to China as a hyperpower. Furthermore, Chua asserts that her arguments aren’t based on mere assumptions rather she goes back to history and explains how each hyperpower underwent the same series of steps. "If the history of hyperpowers has shown anything, it is the danger of xenophobic backlash," she argues, "Time and again, past world-dominant powers have fallen precisely when their core groups turned intolerant, reasserting their true or pure identity and adopting exclusionary policies toward unassimilable groups. From this point of view, attempts to demonize immigrants or to attribute Americas success to Anglo-Protestant virtues is not only misleading (neither the atomic bomb nor Silicon Valley was particularly Anglo-Protestant in origin) but dangerous." (Chua 29) Therefore, her entire book is focused on the policy of tolerance and embracing diversity which ensures that human capital will be preserved and will be empowered enough to take the state to new levels. This argument may also be related to internal stability of a state which has direct correlation with the economy and even the politics of the state. Given the example of China and the suppression of Uighurs, despite being quite empowered on international forums like UN and IMF, and even having a regional dominance in terms of economy, China hasn’t been able to rise as a politically stable state. China has always seen turbulence and has always feared insurgency which explains the controlled media and suppressive democracy model which it follows. Therefore, it is clear enough that unless China finds a way to be tolerant to the minorities as well, there is a threat to China`s peaceful rise. This argument put forth by Amy Chua may also be related to economical well being of a state. In the free market economy where a multitude of product and services compete with each other, unorthodox ways and advanced technology needs to be undertaken. Also, in the global economy, products being sold or services being offered may not necessarily be limited to one state. Instead, globalization implies that the entire globe may be the target market for a company investing in any product. In this context, if a state has biased labor policies favoring one ethnicity over another, the products or the innovations coming as a result would be monotonous, and would only be serving a particular kind of a market. However, if the human capital of a state constitutes a diverse array of individuals coming from different background, the resultant products would also be a result of consensus and innovation coming from amalgamation of various cultures. In this context, contrasting America`s economy with Chinese economy may further prove the point. China suppresses minorities and thus, its human capital constitutes the traditional labor force, and thus, the research and development sector lags behind. Most of the products being made in China are the ones being replicated and not the ones being conceived here. On the other hand, America embraces diversity and therefore, the human capital consists on many different kinds of individuals due to which research and development is more advanced than any other country in the world. This particular example explains how the policy of tolerance goes a long way in determining the trajectory of a state in terms of its economy. Commenting on the strategic paradigm dominant in the international politics and relations currently, and applying the thesis on China`s status may further strengthen the argument in favor of Chua`s hypothesis. Currently, the world is undergoing a strategic paradigm shift with states like China (And Russia) are emerging as world leaders and aiming at taking up the status of hyperpowers. China and Russia are giving an aggressive stance to superpowers like USA over various issues, also aiming at dominating the economic arena by setting up their own institutions. However, even after acquiring legitimacy in the international community and gathering support from developing states, these states have failed at emerging as superpowers (Ogden 99). The underlying cause is their weakness in embracing pluralism and setting new trends in research and development. Though superpower like US is also going through challenges in dealing openly with pluralism, yet the index is better off than states like China who are openly practicing the policy of suppression, again conforming to the hypothesis proposed by Amy Chua. Conclusively, the hypothesis predicated by Amy Chua i.e. states undergo a set pattern of rise and fall depending on how tolerant the state is. In other words, those states which have an open immigration policy and encourage pluralism in workforce are bound to go through an upward trajectory. However, those states which fail to encourage pluralistic policies and engage diverse human capital in innovation fail to compete in the free market. Also, internal instability acts as deterrence in way of these states. The case has been reflected via analyzing Chinese policy towards minorities and then seeing if these policies have any impact on the status of China as a hyperpower, since China has been struggling to acquire a status for quite some time. Therefore, the case study indicates that Amy Chua`s hypothesis is quite accurate and thought China is emerging as a hyperpower in terms of economy yet its internal dynamics suggest otherwise. Works Cited: Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print. Hao, Zhidong, and Sheying Chen. Social Issues in China: Gender, Ethnicity, Labor, and the Environment. , 2013. Internet resource. Ogden, Chris. Handbook of Chinas Governance and Domestic Politics. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013. Print. Read More