Stability in a Unipolar World

Arguably the most important national security interest of the United States is to preserve the continuity of the homeland. Preservation of this element alone is probably sufficient to sustain the existence of the United States as an entity indefinitely. The importance of a unipolar American influence on this aspect of U.S. national security is minimal. Assuming the United States doesn't lose so much of its political, military, and economic might that it overnight disintegrates into oblivion, this element alone will likely be sufficient to preserve the United States as a nation for decades to come. The greatest threat to this aspect of its national security would come from within before any outside overt threats were able to materialize against it enough to rock it from its foundation. The polarity of the world will likely have little effect on America's perseverance as a nation.

Other various interests of American national security are not as clear-cut but a few aspects of American power and the polarity of the world will relate directly to them. The first is America's ability to prosper economically. As the world currently exists, America is prosperous in some part because it has been able to access foreign markets for its goods and services. The unipolarity of the world has a direct impact on how readily American goods and services transit across international borders. It is clearly in America's business interests to enable the exportation of its goods and services. As a monolith in the world, American influence can be used to expand present markets and to introduce American goods to new markets. NAFTA is a good example of the result of this influence. Other states typically desire access to American markets as much as American businesses desire access to foreign markets. This interconnectivity is tied to American unipolar influence.

A second aspect of American national security which may be directly affected by America’s unipolar stature is access to energy. America's economy is highly energy dependent. Without cheap and accessible energy supplies, America's economy would at best slow dramatically. Interruption of just a small percentage of America's foreign energy supply could have a terrible impact on America's quality of life and the functionality as a whole of the entire economy. In one popular present day scenario, if Iran was to impede shipping by laying maritime mines across the strait of Hormuz, a detrimental shift in the cost of living could occur which could potentially cripple the American economy. America's unparalleled military might could have an impact on the prevention or mitigation of such a scenario.

On the other hand, as the world's largest economy, the world's most powerful military, the world's most influential single state actor, enmity and animosity could easily be drawn simply as a cost of doing business. America is the most visible global influence and is easily targeted as the culprit and scapegoat of many problems in the world, even though it may not have anything to do with those problems. It is often easier to cast blame on someone else than to accept blame one's self and America is a very large target in this regard. America will also draw animosity just as a result of being big. The grandiosity of America's place in the world, simply as a consequence of its stature, will draw animosity where there might otherwise have been none.

The stability of the unipolar world will have an impact on all those aspects of national security mentioned above, but certainly isn’t limited to those. The stature of America in the world will ultimately have an impact on every aspect of American national security, no matter its significance. The only possible way to avert the impact, whether positive or negative, of America’s unipolar stature, would be to cease from being what it is. This clearly is not in the interests of America nor its people.



Wohlforth, William C. “The Stability of a Unipolar World.” In America’s Strategic Choices: Revised Edition, edited by Michael E. Brown, Owen R. Cote, Jr., Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Steven E. Miller, 273-309. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2000.

Mastanduno, Michael. “Preserving the Unipolar Moment: Realist Theories and U.S. Grand Strategy after the Cold War.” In America’s Strategic Choices: Revised Edition, edited by Michael E. Brown, Owen R. Cote, Jr., Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Steven E. Miller, 310-350. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2000.