Chace Review: Amy Chua and Hyperpowers

Amy Chua, in her Chace lecture, says it has never before been so important for Americans to partake in a global dialogue. By Michael Burgevin

Amy Chua explores the role of the unipolar global power, or “hyperpower,” and its place on the global stage. Tolerance, Chua explains, played a critical role in the development of the United States into a hyperpower, bolstering the country’s appeal to immigrants. The U.S. government historically augmented American allure through the implementation of incentive programs. While Chua does advocate for incorporating selective, talent-based incentive strategies back into U.S. immigration policy, she argues that America need no longer hound foreign professionals to relocate to the U.S. as it once did. The United States is now viewed as a utopian residency for billions of individuals who hope to immigrate to America, and the government need not enhance the country’s appeal.

Being the current hyperpower, the United States is subject to global attention and criticism, which has lead to a paradoxical perception of American culture. For millions of people, America, or at least its representation through the medium of Hollywood and marketers, symbolizes exactly what they cannot have: financial luxury, limitless upward mobility, and other freedoms not available in their lives today. This bourgeois cultural depiction has stimulated strong international hatred. However, Amy Chua also cites the case of a student in Beijing who returned to the American embassy in hopes of applying for a U.S. visa two weeks after partaking in a stone-throwing demonstration outside the building. When questioned further, the young man explained that, although he may hate the comparatively lavish American lifestyle, he would rather partake in such opportunities than not. Therefore, even though many may hate the U.S. culture, they may also desire to make it their own.

This mentality was demonstrated to me recently during a conversation with several international students in New York. After regaling me with their distain for McDonalds, Republicans, obesity, and everything else they considered to be quintessentially American, the students all responded with shock upon learning that I planned to apply for dual citizenship. “Why would you bother when you already have an American passport? That’s your ticket to freedom. I would give anything for a U.S. passport,” exclaimed one girl. Upon further discussion, I was unable to convince these students who had only moments before decried the United States and everything in it that I was not making the mistake of a lifetime. While they may detest the U.S. culture, they certainly hope to take part in the American society someday.

One explanation for this dichotomous global perception is that the United States has limited control over the countries influenced by American culture. As Amy Chua notes in her book, the Roman and British empires were able to strictly control and reform all states within their spheres of influence. For these empires, cultural integration was facilitated by means of military control. The United States, however, is a democratic hyperpower in a globalized world, where increased communication comes simultaneously with limited autocratic authority. While a student living in the E.U. can download American television straight onto their computer, the United States has no clout to sway perception through direct administrative power as Rome could in the regions that are now France and Spain.

The onus, then, falls on individuals to shape perceptions of American culture. We do live in a globalized state, and it has never before been so important for U.S. citizens to lay aside their isolationist tendencies and partake in a global dialogue. This is not to advocate that Americans somehow attempt to manipulate global perceptions in order to preserve out unipolar position. However, as countries strengthen their economic, political, and social ties, so to must their citizens. Should the United States hope to regain the trust and respect of billions of people around the world, we must stop thinking of ourselves just as Americans, and start engaging in the global sphere, or risk being lost in a whirlwind of hate.