Military potency is synonymous for a nation’s power within the global sphere, in most modern societies today. The United States has historically, and contemporarily, been the most notorious culprit of this—exercising military power, and subsequently inflicting violence, in order to establish its diplomatic and political dominance. The most recent implementation was on Thursday, April 13th, when the US military dropped a MOAB (mother of all bombs) on the Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. It is no coincidence that the United States and Russia are the countries with the highest number of nuclear warheads, and are also considered some of the most diplomatically powerful countries in the world. Neocolonialism, and Cold War-esque coercive diplomacy, are exerted and maintained by the inextricability of power and military/political dominance.
While this may be obvious, it is interesting to think about how the interconnectedness of power and the military reflects true human values and the notion of power. As the Collins Dictionary defines it, “If someone has power, they have a lot of control over people and activities.” Historically, the military was used as a means to achieve imperial, colonial, cultural, political and economic hegemony. According to the United Nations declaration of human rights, peace is theoretically a “universal” societal value. However, while many inhumane traditions, such as human sacrifice and torture, have been eliminated and deemed as primitive and cruel in Western nations, war is still considered a necessary and acceptable tool to achieve power, and even “peace.” The United States explains its military interventions as motivated by Americanist values, but if one of those values is peace, there is a clear contradiction. For example, in Vietnam, the United States claimed to be intervening to give freedom to the Vietnamese, from the Communists. However, the war in Vietnam lasted twenty years and resulted in about 3 million deaths (although the official numbers vary).
Notwithstanding the previous consideration, power is inevitably linked to physical and military force. The nuclear arms race during the Cold War is evidence of this. The United States and the Soviet Union competed for the quantity of nuclear warheads they possessed, which symbolized their ability to destroy the other party. The ability to threaten the existence of an entire nation, or even all of humanity, was how the two nations manifested their national strength.
Preceding the Cold War era, the United States established colonial power by coercing local populations to accept American sovereignty. For example, the United States’ invasion of the Philippines in 1899 resulted in a three year war which killed 200,000 civilians and 20,000 Filipino combatants. Although these countries are now decolonized, the American military presence is a way for the US to secure continued political and economic control over the countries. Neocolonialism, it seems, relies on the perpetuation of power via the looming threat of physical and military force.
Today, the United States has military bases in many of its former colonies. Notwithstanding the fact that American troops were evicted from the Philippines in 1990, there are currently around 6,000 troops in the country. In Iraq, there are now 5 US military bases, even though the Iraqi parliament had rejected the United States’ demand to maintain some bases after the end of the military occupation of the country. The United States also has military bases in NATO member states. Even within NATO, whose members are supposedly allies, the United States establishes its dominance. Over 70 years after the end of World War II, there are still over 11,500 troops and military bases in Italy, supposedly for strategic motives related to the country’s proximity to North Africa.
Ever since the World War II, the United States has been allocating a huge portion of its resources and public funds on constructing an enormous military powerhouse through the development of its military sector. In 1961, President Eisenhower warned Americans about the military-industrial complex that the United States had, and was still, developing. Today, the United States spends about 54% of its overall government expenditure on developing military forces. In comparison, the government only allocates 6% of its funds to education. The United States’ defence budget is the highest in the world, and almost 4 times as much as China’s (the country with the next highest defence budget). These figures clearly indicate the importance that the United States gives to its military arsenal.
Military power is contradictory because, on one hand, the UN human rights that all countries – including the United States – supposedly support, claim that peace is a universal right. However, the United States has also inflicted many violent crimes on citizens of other countries, and continues to invest in its military. This inherent contradiction can be somewhat explained in the close relation between the military and power within the global sphere. As a result, the United States continues to build its military bases and arsenal.
