Ruses of Nature: How Defending Ukraine Might Hasten the Decline of us Hegemony

This paper discusses the war in Ukraine and its consequences, particularly the effects of the financial sanctions imposed by the United States, and its allies, on Russia. The conflict is examined in the context of a deeper structural change in the international order, with China and Russia as key players. We deploy a dialectical perspective, using Gramsci as a starting point to posit that simple quantitative changes can cause long-term qualitative differences in power relations. While the United States’ economic hegemony is unlikely to cease soon, the war in Ukraine and it’s economic repercussions could lead to unexpected results and transformations in the United States’ geopolitical position. We discuss how sanctions can be a double-edged sword, affecting all actors involved, and how actions that seek to restore order may accelerate processes of structural change in international power dynamics. The paper provides examples of how the responses to the conflict are affecting various other dynamics of world order by rearranging national interests, national security, and the political economies in Europe, China, and the Global South. We conclude that the “ruses of nature” manifest as contradictions in human actions and that the relationships between significant human actions and social forces can show how social impulses may accomplish the opposite of their original intent.