Gonzaga Debate Institute 2010

Heg Solves Global Stability

U.S. hegemony through military presence maintains order

Mandelbaum 6 [Michael, professor of American foreign Foreign Policy Magazine, Jan/Feb, http://www.sais-jhu.edu/insider/pdf/2006_articles/mandelbaum_fp_010506.pdf]

For instance, U.S. military power helps to keep order in the world. The American military presence in Europe and East Asia, which now includes approximately 185,000 personnel, reassures the governments of these regions that their neighbors cannot threaten them, helping to allay suspicions, forestall arms races, and make the chances of armed conflict remote. U.S. forces in Europe, for instance, reassure Western Europeans that they do not have to increase their own troop strength to protect themselves against the possibility of a resurgent Russia, while at the same time reassuring Russia that its great adversary of the last century, Germany, will not adopt aggressive policies. Similarly, the U.S.- Japan Security Treaty, which protects Japan, simultaneously reassures Japan’s neighbors that it will remain peaceful. This reassurance is vital yet invisible, and it is all but taken for granted.

U.S. policies ensure peace.
Mandelbaum 6 [Michael, professor of American foreign Foreign Policy Magazine, Jan/Feb, http://www.sais-jhu.edu/insider/pdf/2006_articles/mandelbaum_fp_010506.pdf]

To be sure, the United States did not deliberately set out to become the world’s government. The services it provides originated during the Cold War as part of its struggle with the Soviet Union, and America has continued, adapted, and in some cases expanded them in the post-Cold War era. Nor do Americans think of their country as the world’s government. Rather, it conducts, in their view, a series of policies designed to further American interests. In this respect they are correct, but these policies serve the interests of others as well. The alternative to the role the United States plays in the world is not better global governance, but less of it—and that would make the world a far more dangerous and less prosperous place. Never in human history has one country done so much for so many others, and received so little appreciation for its efforts.

Heg Solves Democracy

US hegemony is essential to support democracies

Diamond 96 [Larry Senior researcher fellow at Hoover Institution, Orbis, “Beyond the Unipolar Moment: Why the United States Must Remain Engaged”, p. 405-413]

In the past, global power has been an important reason why certain countries have become models for emulation by others. The global power of the United States, and of its Western democratic allies, has been a factor in the diffusion of democracy around the world, and certainly is crucial to our ability to help popular, legitimate democratic forces deter armed threats to their overthrow, or to return to power (as in Haiti) when they have been overthrown. Given the linkages among democracy, peace, and human rights-as well as the recent finding of Professor Adam Przeworski (New York University) that democracy is more likely to survive in a country when it is more widely present in the region-we should not surrender our capacity to diffuse and defend democracy. It is not only intrinsic to our ideals but important to our national security that we remain globally powerful and engaged-and that a dictatorship does not rise to hegemonic power within any major region.

Heg key to democracy spread
McFaul and Bings 5 [Michael McFaul, Helen and Peter Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Winter 2004-2005, The Washington Quarterly, p. 158. Google Books]

There is a genuine correlation between the advance of democracy as well as democratic norms worldwide and the growth of U.S. power. No country has done more to strengthen the norms and practices of democracy around the world than the United States. If Adolf Hitler had prevailed in World War II, democratic values would have survived, but few democratic regimes would have remained. Similarly, if the Cold War had ended with U.S. disintegration, rather than Soviet dissolution, command economies run by one-party dictatorships would be the norm and democracy the exception. Thus, even good ideas need powerful actors to defend and advance them.

Heg Solves Economy

Heg is key to sustaining the economy – trade, oil, and investments

Khalilzad 95 [Zalmay Defense Analyst at RAND, The Washington Quarterly, RETHINKING GRAND STRATEGY; Vol. 18, No. 2; Pg. 84,]

The extension of instability, conflict, and hostile hegemony in East Asia, Europe, and the Persian Gulf would harm the economy of the United States even in the unlikely event that it was able to avoid involvement in major wars and conflicts. Higher oil prices would reduce the U.S. standard of living. Turmoil in Asia and Europe would force major economic readjustment in the United States, perhaps reducing U.S. exports and imports and jeopardizing U.S. investments in these regions. Given that total imports and exports are equal to a quarter of U.S. gross domestic product, the cost of necessary adjustments might be high
Hegemony solves Iranian instability

Washington Times 5 [October 13, Lexis]

What does it take to attract qualified people to the U.S. military? The Pentagon's release of final fiscal year 2005 recruiting and retention data confirms that this billion-dollar question needs to be revisited again. The recruiting catastrophe many feared after poor spring results never came to pass, but the numbers in the Army, the Army Reserves and National Guard are all bad omens. The Army's 6,627-recruit shortfall was its biggest in 26 years. No wonder Iran is taunting the United States over its apparently reduced capabilities in the Persian Gulf region. The news isn't all bad: As expected, the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force each exceeded their annual recruiting goals. Those services traditionally fill the ranks more easily than the Army and its reserve components, and that hasn't changed. Equally encouraging, it appears that the Pentagon's efforts to keep our existing soldiers, even in the most manpower-troubled places, are working. All the services except the Navy exceeded their annual retention goals. There were losses in the reserve components, but these were within the Pentagon's "acceptable limits." This suggests that even if the war in Iraq is driving away new recruits the way some critics of the Bush administration contend, at least it isn't driving away the people already fighting. But existing soldiers aren't the problem; new ones are. The Army and its reserve components are still struggling to attract recruits. Although the Army rebounded nicely from the spring by signing 105 percent of the recruits it sought for July through September, this still left it at 92 percent of its 2005 goal of 80,000 new recruits. Things were even worse in the National Guard and the Army Reserves. The Guard reached only 80 percent of its annual goal and the Army Reserve 84 percent. No doubt the increased likelihood of being sent overseas accounts for much of the recruiting problem - an effect that will lessen as the Pentagon rotates more guardsmen and reservists home but one that is unlikely to go away completely as long as the war on terror continues. For a sense of why the problem matters, consider what our enemies say about it. "There will not be a war ahead of us. The situation in America does not allow them to create new fronts," Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told an Iranian news agency last week. That suggests the United States is not striking fear into the mullahs' hearts the way it should be.