WTO: Perpetuating U.S. Hegemony or Reshaping the International Order?

This paper examines US hegemonic endurance within the liberal international postwar order through an analysis of the impacts of the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO) into world politics. The analysis aims to determine whether the WTO contributes to locking in the US-centered postwar order or produces relative gains that implicate shifts in economic might that may eventually unsettle such order for changing the distribution of power within it. The findings indicate that the functioning of the WTO produces bases for relative economic gains unfavorable to the US, thus setting grounds for shifts in the distribution of power that may unsettle the existing international order. Such findings are consistent with neorealist approaches to hegemonic decline regarding the erosion of hegemony and with a neoliberal institutionalist reading of the endurance of the US-centered postwar order. Findings are inconsistent with the neorealist understanding that the international order mirrors the distribution of power and is prone to be challenged if the hegemon experiences relative decline. Contemplating the first stage of a four-stage framework of analysis, this paper sets the basis for continuing research by assessing whether the WTO distributes evenly the effects of its functioning. The analysis is based on WTO data on trade disputes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]