“America’s Changing Place in the World: from ‘Periphery’ to Centre’? Spatial Variation in Politics. " by Alan K. Henrikson

In this paper Henrikson examines the position of the US in international affairs using the “core and periphery” dichotomy of the dependency school of thought. At the United State’s inception it was a counter culture, distinct yet inconsequential to European hegemony. By the 1940s, the US had crept to the inner limits of the periphery of global politics, able to excerpt a finite amount of influence. World War II provided the stage for US ascension to the global “center”. Henrikson examines each of these eras and the corresponding discourse in their contemporary cartography. In each example the maps convey an America-centric view of the world. Henrikson suggests that the 1970’s social and academic critiques of nationalistic policies compel us to employ more inclusive paradigms. Suggestive of Immanuel Wallerstein’s work, Henrikson introduces a number of “world-system” approaches that avoid the implications of just hegemony.