Cross-Cultural Competence Analysis: Imperialism and Americanization

This essay examines cross-cultural competence, focusing on the intertwined relationship between imperialism and Americanization. It begins by defining imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, highlighting its influence on global politics and economics, especially after World War I. Americanization is presented as a parallel process, asserting economic and cultural control over underdeveloped countries under the guise of development. The essay references key thinkers like Lenin and Michael Barrett-Brown to illustrate the enduring impact of imperialism, particularly the economic disparities between the Global North and South. It then explores Americanization as the spread of American cultural and financial capital, manifested through material artifacts and media. The essay analyzes how capitalism facilitates cultural interpenetration, potentially leading to epistemic violence and the loss of indigenous cultures. It concludes by discussing the political events, such as the Vietnam War, the Cuban Revolution, and the Gulf War, as examples of American involvement driven by a sense of historical necessity and evangelical fervor. The essay emphasizes the ongoing dominance of the West and the need to understand its ideological underpinnings, citing the works of Noam Chomsky and Edward Said.

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL COMPETENCE
CROSS CULTURAL COMPETENCE
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1CROSS CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Imperialism is the highest stage of world capitalism, which too its shape in the
gradual changes in world politics and economics in the post WWI era. Americanization,
sometimes understood as parallel to internationalization, closely follows the logic of
imperialism to assert economic and cultural control over underdeveloped countries masked as
a project of development.
Imperialism is etymologically derived from empire. The empire asserts its power over
the settlements in non-European countries through remote operation or governance. This
governance can be in forms military, financial, political, and most importantly, cultural.
Driven by the need to acquire wealth as well as propagate finance capitalism, imperialism is a
project of systematic economic domination of the West. According to the classic study by V.
I. Lenin, imperialism, in order to function as an integral economic model and sustain
colonialism, requires monopolization of labour and extortion of natural resources, and the
exportation of finance capital. (Lenin, 1999)
In the post-Cold war era, imperialism was said to be a thing of the past, with
decreasing dominance of the European countries over their colonies. However, as Michael
Barrett-Brown argues, imperialism is still a powerful force that appropriates international
relations across boundaries. (Said, 2012, p.283) The evidence for that is the immense
economic gap which still exists between poor Southern hemisphere states and rich Northern
hemisphere states which is restated by the Brandt report of 1980. (Said, 2012, p.284)
In this juncture, we reflect upon the increasing socio-cultural dominance of the
America which has led to the worldwide phenomena of Americanization as such. In the late
19th and early 20th century, Americanization referred to a sociological process by which the
non-American immigrant demographic is assimilated into the American society. (Craig and
Douglas, 2009) But in the contemporary time, and in this paper, we understand

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Americanization as a process through which American cultural and financial capital travels
across boundaries and becomes manifest in other cultures. The primary evidence of this
exchange is seen in the form of direct exposure to typically American material artefacts like
Coke, Nike, Levi’s and Apple and indirect exposure to American life through mediascapes
like MTV and CNN in other cultures. (Craig and Douglas, 2009)
The mechanism underlying capitalism is largely manifested in terms of movement of
information, products, people and cultural content across countries. In doing so, the cultural
fabric of a people is lost through a process of cultural interpenetration where the ‘ethnic core’
of a culture is juxtaposed upon another. Cultural interpenetration by imperialist cultures may
transform an indigenous society through an act of epistemic violence where the ‘ethnic core’
of that society cannot be isolated from elements of the oppressing culture. In developing
countries, the media perpetuates narratives of materialism of Western societies, and people
become aware of a lifestyle typical of America. This, in turn, provokes a desire for products
and artefacts which are seen to be symbolic of that lifestyle. (Craig and Douglas, 2009)
The case of imperialism as a driving force behind Americanization is well apparent in
the political events of American involvement in the Vietnam War, the Cuban revolution and
the Gulf War, the last being the most violent and least reported war in modern history. The
force behind these wars were greater than political or economic, there was a sense of
“historical necessity, and evangelical fervour” (Barnet, 1973). It has been rightly
acknowledged by Noam Chomsky, and seconded by Edward Said, that we live in an era of
American ascendency. It feeds the continuity of the ideological need of the narrative of
dominance that the West has preached since the nineteenth century and earlier. (Said, 2012)

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References
Barnet, R. J. (1973). Roots of war. New York: Penguin Books.
Lenin, V. I. (1999). Imperialism: The highest stage of capitalism. Resistance Books.
Said, E. W. (2012). Culture and imperialism. Vintage.
Samuel Craig, C., Douglas, S. P., & Bennett, A. (2009). Contextual and cultural factors
underlying Americanization. International Marketing Review, 26(1), 90-109.