Explaining Wikileaks and Julian Assange as structural threats to the liberal ideological hegemony of American foreign policy

Abstract

The political persecution of Julian Assange and Wikileaks by the American state is best explained by understanding the classified revelations as threats to the ideological legitimacy of its foreign policy hegemony. I apply Gramsci’s conception of hegemony, as adherence to universalized principles, to American foreign policy, which explains why ideas matter and their role in a hegemonic system. My empirical analysis primarily focuses on Wikileaks’ Collateral Murder video, and I offer three reasons to argue why Wikileaks undermines the hegemonic structure. First, the organization’s revelations, particularly of war crimes, provide evidence that directly undermines and contradicts the central liberal claims of US foreign policy ideology. Second, those leaks have bolstered the construction and legitimation of organic intellectuals within an antiwar movement that can challenge the hegemonic historic bloc. Third, the leaks question the techno-military claims of the military–industrial complex, which argues its technologies conduct smart, safe, and moral warfare.