DOCSLIB.ORG

Benign Power, Regional Integration, and the Sources of a Stable Multipolarity

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Benign Power, Regional Integration, and the Sources of a Stable Multipolarity Benign Power, Regional Integration, and the Sources of a Stable Multipolarity ~ A era of unprece- dented peace appears to be at hand as the twenty-first century draws near. The world’s major powers enjoy cooperative relations, democracy is taking root in many countries that have long suffered under authoritarian rule, and the world economy is becoming increasingly liberalized and integrated. Contrary to the dire predictions of a return to a Hobbesian world, the end of the Cold War has not been accompanied by the fragmentation of international order and the emergence of rivalry among atomistic national units.’ A sobering reality, however, must temper optimism about the emerging international landscape. The peace and prosperity of the current era rely too heavily on a single ingredient: American power. The United States serves as a critical extraregional balancer in Europe and East Asia, is the catalyst behind multilateral efforts to combat aggression and peacefully resolve long-standing disputes, and is the engine behind the liberalization of the world economy. But America’s preponderance and its will to underwrite international order will not last indefinitely. Even if the U.S. economy grows at a healthy rate, Amer- ica’s share of world product and its global influence will decline as other large countries develop and become less enamored of following America’s lead.2 ~~~ Charles A. Kupckan is Associate Professor of International Relations at Georgefourn University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The author would like to thank participants in seminars at the following institutions for their thoughtful comments: Hebrew University, Columbia University, University of California at San Diego, Council on Foreign Relations, Georgetown University, University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, Okazaki Institute (Tokyo), the American Center (Tokyo), and the Danish Institute of International Affairs (Copenhagen). The critiques of Michael Barnett, &chard Betts, Albert Fishlow, Gary Hufbauer, Clifford Kupchan, Joseph Lepgold, Gideon Rose, Peter Trubowitz, Ole Waever, Fareed Zakaria, and the reviewers of International Security were particularly helpful. For research assistance, I would like to thank Jason Davidson, Delphe Park, and Mira Sucharov. 1. See, for example, John J. Mearsheimer, ”Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War,” International Security, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Summer 1990), pp. 5-56. 2. For general analysis of the secular processes through which the locus of preponderant power changes over time, see Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- bridge University Press, 1981). During the second half of the twentieth century, US. economic output has fallen from roughly one-half to one-quarter of gross world product. See Jeffrey Frankel, Regional Tradirig Blocs in the World Economic System (Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 1997), p. 6. Internntronal Security, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Fall 1998), pp. 40-79 0 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 40 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/isec.23.2.40 by guest on 30 September 2021 After Pax Americana 1 41 Furthermore, the American electorate will tire of a foreign policy that saddles the United States with such a disproportionate share of the burden of manag- ing the international system. America‘s unipolar moment will not last long. To assume that international order can indefinitely rest on American hegemony is both illusory and dangerous. How should the prospect of waning American power affect the conduct of American grand ~trategy?~Several prominent schools of thought suggest that the decline of American hegemony need not be cause for concern; peace will outlast American preponderance. The optimists contend that democracy, glo- balization, the spread of international institutions, and changes in the sources of state power are eroding national boundaries and making warfare an obso- lete tool of ~tatecraft.~The end of the twentieth century, however, is not the first time in history that students of international politics have proclaimed an end to war. In the years leading up to World War I and again during the interwar period, scholars and diplomats alike argued that economic interde- pendence;technological innovation, and societal aversion to the horrors of war were making armed conflict a historical artifa~t.~If today‘s optimists prove to be as wrong as yesterday’s, there is good reason to be worried about the potential consequences of a relative decline in U.S. power.6 Even if the optimists are right that international politics have entered a more peaceful era, the waning of American hegemony still provides cause for alarm. ~~~~ - ~~ ~ 3. Even if American hegemony lasts for decades more, debate about crafting a posthegemonic order should take place now, while US. preponderance is still sufficient to maintain the status quo. It is far more prudent to put in place the foundation of a durable order by design than simply to wait until current arrangements unravel. Many analysts agree that US.preponderance will not last, but few have given thought to how the prospect of decline should affect US. grand strategy. One exception is Christopher Layne. Layne calls for a US.grand strategy of offshore balancing to conserve US. resources and to help protect the United States from getting dragged into distant conflicts. He fails to address, however, how to promote peace as the United States withdraws from existing commitments. Instead, he makes the case that the United States should simply stand aloof from the regional conflicts likely to emerge in the wake of an American retrenchment. See Layne, “From Preponderance to Offshore Balancing: America‘s Future Grand Strategy,” lnternntional Security, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Summer 1999, pp. 86-124. 4. On the democratic peace, see Bruce Russett, Graspiizg the Democratic Peace (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993); and Michael Doyle, ”Liberalism and World Politics,” American Political Science Reviezu, Vol. 80, No. 4 (December 1986), pp. 1151-1169. On the declining utility of warfare, see Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Trading State (New York Basic Books, 1986); and John Mueller, Retreat from Doomsday: The Obsolescence of Major War (New York Basic Books, 1989). 5. See, for example, Norman Angell, The Great Illusion (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911). 6. Important critiques of the democratic peace hypothesis have been collected in two edited volumes: Michael E. Brown, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Steven E. Miller, eds., Debating the Deinocratic Peace (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996); and Miriam Fendius Elman, ed., Paths to Peace: Is Democracy fhe Answer? (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997). Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/isec.23.2.40 by guest on 30 September 2021 International Security 23:2 1 42 Although scholars disagree about whether bipolar or multipolar systems are more stable, most agree that both are less stable than unipolar ~ystems.~The end of America’s unipolar moment and the return to multipolarity thus threaten to trigger structural sources of competition that may well override other sources of peace. Indeed, the ongoing debate between realists and institution- alists of various stripes essentially revolves around pitting structural sources of competition against ideational and institutional sources of cooperation.8 Structure, however, may be the solution, not an endemic source of rivalry that must be overcome by antidotes such as democracy, globalization, and international institutions. If order devolved from structure itself, rather than from efforts to tame systemic forces, that order would be more durable and self-sustaining. The prospect of the end of American hegemony thus raises a crucial question: Is it possible to construct a stable multipolarity? I argue that the United States should prepare for the inevitable decline of its preponderance by encouraging the emergence of regional unipolarity in each of the world‘s three areas of industrial and military power-North America, Europe, and East Asia. Unipolarity at the regional level will offset through structural forces the fragmentation and rivalry that otherwise would likely accompany the decline of American hegemony. Because even global wars start at the regional level, securing peace within regions is an essential first step toward securing peace globally. I introduce the notion of ”benign unipolarity” to map out the logic upon which my analysis rests. Benign unipolarity refers to a hierarchical structure in which a preponderant geographic core establishes a hub-spoke pattern of influence over a weaker periphery. As in an empire, the core exerts a powerful centripetal force over the periphery by virtue of its uncontested preponderance and the size and scope of its economy. In contrast to a classical empire, however, regional order emerges from a consensual bargain between core and periphery, not from coercion. The core engages in self-restraint and agrees to subject the exercise of its preponderant power to a set of rules and norms 7. On the greater stability of bipolarity, see Kenneth N. Waltz, ”The Stability of a Bipolar World,” DaedaIus, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Summer 1964), pp. 881-909; and Mearsheimer, ”Back to the Future.” For arguments in favor of multipolarity, see Karl Deutsch and J. David Singer, ”Multipolar Power Systems and International Stability,” World Politics, Vol. 16, No. 3 (April 1964), pp. 390-106. For general discussion of polarity and stability, see Stephen Van Evera, ”Primed for Peace: Europe after the Cold War,” International Security, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Winter 1990/91), pp. 5-57; and Michael Mastanduno, ”Preserving the Unipolar Moment: Realist Theories and US. Grand Strategy after the Cold War,” International Security, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Spring 1997), pp. 49-88. 8. See the exchange between John Mearsheimer and his critics in ”Promises, Promises: Can Institutions Deliver?” International Security, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Summer 1995), pp. 39-93.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Class:-12, Political Science Notes Chapter:- 04 Alternative Centers of Power DATE:- 8/07/21 European Union • After
    Class:-12, Political Science Notes Chapter:- 04 Alternative Centers of Power DATE:- 8/07/21 European Union • After the end of the Second World War, there was a dilemma among many European leaders over the status of Europe. • The Second World War shattered the structure on which the European states had based their relations. • The Cold War aided the integration of Europe after 1945. The European economy was revived by the extensive financial support by USA under the ‘Marshall Plan’. • The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was established in 1948 to channel aid to the West European states. Another step forward in political cooperation was the establishment of the council of Europe in 1949. • The disintegration of USSR led to the formation of European Union in 1992 which laid the foundation for a common foreign and security policy, cooperation on justice and creation of a single currency. • The European Union has evolved over time from an economic union to an increasingly political one. • The European Union has economic, political, diplomatic and military influence. • Economically, the European Union is the world’s biggest economy. It had a GDP of more than $12 trillion in 2005. Its currency Euro, can pose a threat to the dominance of the US dollar. • On the political and diplomatic ground, Britain and France, the two members of EU are permanent members of the UN Security Council. • In the defence field, the European Union’s combined armed forces are the second largest in the world. Association of South East Asian Nations [ASEAN] • Before and during the Second World War, the South East Asia suffered a lot from repeated colonialism i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Emerging Powers and Emerging Trends in Global Governance
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Stephen, Matthew D. Article — Accepted Manuscript (Postprint) Emerging Powers and Emerging Trends in Global Governance Global Governance Provided in Cooperation with: WZB Berlin Social Science Center Suggested Citation: Stephen, Matthew D. (2017) : Emerging Powers and Emerging Trends in Global Governance, Global Governance, ISSN 1942-6720, Brill Nijhoff, Leiden, Vol. 23, Iss. 3, pp. 483-502, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02303009 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/215866 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu This article was published by Brill in Global Governance, Vol. 23 (2017), Iss. 3, pp. 483–502 (2017/08/19): https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02303009.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering George Kennan Does Not Mean Idolizing Him
    UNITED STATES InsTITUTE OF PEACE www.usip.org SPECIAL REPORT 1200 17th Street NW • Washington, DC 20036 • 202.457.1700 • fax 202.429.6063 ABOUT THE REPORT Melvyn P. Leffler This report originated while Melvyn P. Leffler was a Jennings Randolph Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. He was writing his book on what appeared to be the most intractable and ominous conflict of the post–World War II era—the Cold War. He was addressing the questions of why the Cold War lasted as long as it did and why it ended when Remembering it did. As part of the ongoing dialogue at the United States Institute of Peace, he was repeatedly asked about the lessons of the Cold War for our contemporary problems. George Kennan His attention was drawn to the career of George F. Kennan, the father of containment. Kennan was a rather obscure and frustrated foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Lessons for Today? Moscow when his “Long Telegram” of February 1946 gained the attention of policymakers in Washington and transformed his career. Leffler reviews Kennan’s legacy and ponders the implications of his thinking for the contemporary era. Is it Summary possible, Leffler wonders, to reconcile Kennan’s legacy with the newfound emphasis on a “democratic peace”? • Kennan’s thinking and policy prescriptions evolved quickly from the time he wrote the Melvyn P. Leffler, a former senior fellow at the United States “Long Telegram” in February 1946 until the time he delivered the Walgreen Lectures Institute of Peace, won the Bancroft Prize for his book at the University of Chicago in 1950.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Governance 2025: at a Critical Juncture
    Global Governance 2025: at a Critical Juncture NIC 2010-08 September 2010 This page was intentionally left blank. This page was intentionally left blank. Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Juncture Inquiries regarding this report may be made to Mathew Burrows, Counselor to the National Intelligence Council, on (703) 482-0741 and to the EU Institute of Security Studies on 0033-1-56-89-19-51. NIC 2010-08 September 2010 This page was intentionally left blank. Preface The United States’ National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) have joined forces to produce this assessment of the long-term prospects for global governance frameworks. This exercise builds on the experience of the two institutions in identifying the key trends shaping the future international system. Since the mid 1990s, the NIC has produced four editions of its landmark Global Trends report. The most recent one, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, published in late 2008, noted that momentous change was ahead, with the gap between increasing disorder and weakening governance structures widening. The EUISS produced the first EU-level report on the factors affecting the evolution of the international system in 2006, The New Global Puzzle. What World for the EU in 2025? The report stressed that a multipolar system is emerging and that matching the new distribution of power with new rules and institutions will be critical to preserving international peace and stability. The US and the EU do not always see eye to eye on every issue on the international agenda, but they share fundamental values and strategic interests to an extent not matched by any other partners in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Russia's Turn to Eurasia
    CSS Policy Perspectives ETH Zurich Vol. 6/5, August 2018 Russia’s Turn to Eurasia Russian efforts to integrate some post-Soviet states into the common framework of the Eurasian Economic Union could have a lasting impact—Europe should take note. By Jeronim Perović oscow’s failure to make Ukraine part of its Eurasian economic, political and military weight in order to influ- Meconomic integration project was a severe blow to ence developments in its neighborhood. It was only from Russian foreign policy ambitions. Notwithstanding the early 2000s onwards that Russia’s position in the re- Ukraine’s turn to the West, however, Russia has continued gion was destabilizing, as Western states and organizations its integration efforts in the post-Soviet space, resulting in began to make inroads. The Baltic states became NATO the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union members in 2004, the first oil and gas pipelines circum- (EAEU) in 2015. The EAEU’s overall economic perfor- venting Russian territory were built with the help of for- mance has been modest so far, and the organization, con- eign companies, and China started to expand economically sisting of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, and Kyr- into Central Asia. gyzstan, has a long way to go before it achieves its goal of Moscow’s decision to push for regional economic forming an EU-style internal market with free movement integration was a reaction to these processes. So far, Mos- of goods, services, people and capital. But there have been cow’s primary interest has not been in the economic side of tangible achievements in various sectors, and ambitions for integration (after all, trade with EAEU members accounts the future are high.
    [Show full text]
  • Harvardasia Quarterly
    FALL 2012, Vol. XIV, No. 3 Harvard Asia Quarterly A Journal of Current Affairs Affiliated with the Harvard University Asia Center INSIDE: South Asian Perspectives in the Modern Context JHUMA SEN · The Trial of Errors in Bangladesh: The ICTA and the 1971 Interview: TARUN KHANNA · On India, China, and Innovation War Crimes Trial SANGEETA MEDIRATTA · The Affair of the Greased Cartridge: Traveling EMILIAN kavaLSKI · “Brand India” or “Pax Indica”? The Myth of Stories, Unraveling Empires, and the Sepoy Revolt of 1857 Assertive Posturing in India’s Post-1998 Foreign Policy Making SUVOBRATA SARKAR · Colonization, Technical Education, and the SHAMSUL KHAN · Middle Powers and the Dynamics of Power Shift: Bengali Bhadralok: Studies on the Politics of Knowledge, 1856-1905 Conceptualizing the Economics and Geopolitical Implications of Pax Sinica rao IMRAN HABIB & MAHDI ZAHRAA · Judicial Independence in DOUGLAS HILL · Alternative Institutional Arrangements: Managing Pakistan: A Brief Historical Account Transboundary Water Resources in South Asia Harvard Asia Quarterly FALL 2012, Vol. XIV, No. 3 EDIToR-IN-chief Allan Hsiao AREA EDIToRS China AREA Head Editor: Rui Guo Huiyi Chen Michael Chenkin oliver Kerr Florin-Stefan Morar Hannah Waight Japan AREA Head Editor: Rebecca Tompkins Alissa Murray Danica Truscott Valerie Zinner KoREA AREA Head Editor: Keung Yoon Bae Russell Burge Inga Diederich Justin Thomas SoUTH/SoUTHEAST ASIA AREA Head Editors: Erum Sattar, Jonathan Lim Leandro Angelo Y. Aguirre Jesusa Arellano-Aguda Pawat Satayanurug Ying Xia The Harvard Asia Quarterly is a journal of current affairs affiliated with the Harvard University Asia Center. LETTER FRoM THE EDIToR Dear Reader, The current edition of the Harvard Asia Quarterly represents a collection of perspectives on the issues facing South Asian society today.
    [Show full text]
  • Foreign Policy Research Institute
    Foreign Policy Research Institute FOOTNOTES Vol. 12, No. 5 The Newsletter of the Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education February 2007 CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY by June Teufel Dreyer June Teufel Dreyer is professor of political science at the University of warming of relations with the USSR. This had the advantage Miami and an FPRI senior fellow. This presentation was made of allowing China to play one of these powers off against the at FPRI’s Understanding China A History Institute for Teachers, other, doing so very successfully until the disintegration of held October 21–22, 2006 at Carthage College, Kenosha, the Soviet Union in 1989. Wisconsin. The Institute was co-sponsored by the Clausen With the global balance of power now unipolar, the Chinese Center for World Business and School of Professional Studies, government felt vulnerable. Moreover, the only remaining both of Carthage College, and supported by a grant from The superpower was proving difficult to deal with. Washington Annenberg Foundation. was particularly critical of China after the 1989 Tiananmen China has had many foreign policies since the founding of incident, urging it to implement human rights protections the PRC in 1949. For its first five years, the PRC followed a and to evolve into a liberal democratic state. The U.S. then “lean to one side” policy. As explained by Chairman Mao invaded Iraq in 1991 to force it to disgorge Kuwait, albeit Zedong, this meant that “whoever is not with us”--the with approval from the UN Security Council. A reluctant socialist-communist camp--“is against us.” Then from 1955- China at first threatened to veto, arguing that Iraq‟s 57 it pursued a markedly different and much more sovereign rights were being violated, but with its Most accommodative policy.
    [Show full text]
  • Issues, Trends and Challenges in an Emerging Global Power Structure
    ISSN 1712-8056[Print] Canadian Social Science ISSN 1923-6697[Online] Vol. 14, No. 2, 2018, pp. 5-15 www.cscanada.net DOI:10.3968/10182 www.cscanada.org Issues, Trends and Challenges in an Emerging Global Power Structure Aituaje Irene Pogoson [a]Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. *Corresponding author. INTRODUCTION Two phenomenal events, more than any other, shaped our Received 24 November 2017; accepted 27 January 2018 world in the last century. The first is the denotation of Published online 26 February 2018 the first two weapons of mass destruction on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both in Japan in 1945. The second was the Abstract pulling down of the Berlin wall in 1989. The reality of the early 21st century is that the world is The use of the atomic bomb in the theatre of war, in the grip of the transformation of the power structure. after several years of secret research and development, China has risen into global reckoning; Russia began to announced the arrival of the United States of America as rise from its inertia; North Korea has evolved to a global the most powerful nation in the world, Before then, the threat. All have begun to lay claims to a greater role in United States was just one of the major powers, although the international political system. The unipolarism of the one whose entry and contributions to the second world post-Soviet era seems to be dissolving before our eyes. war, helped to save the world from Hitler’s philosophy of These emerging trends raise questions as to; what sort superiority of the Aryan Race and his dream of imposing of multipolarism are we talking about? How will the a 1000-year Reich on the world, as well as from Japan’s coming multipolar order operate? Will great power be aggressive imperial adventure in South-East Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • N a T O's G L O B a L M I S S I O N I N T H E
    THE MANFRED WÖRNER FELLOWSHIP OF NATO 1998-1999 THE ATLANTIC CLUB OF BULGARIA NN AA TT OO’’ss GG LL OO BB AA LL MM II SS SS II OO NN II NN TT HH EE 2211SSTT CC EE NN TT UU RR YY STRATEGIC STUDY Supported by: THE GERMAN MARSHALL FUND OF THE UNITED STATES Project Director and Author of the Text: Dr. Stefan Popov Working Group: Dr. Lyubomir Ivanov Dr. Solomon Passy Marianna Panova, MIA Marin Mihaylov Sofia May 2000 THE ATLANTIC CLUB OF BULGARIA 1998-1999 MANFRED WŐRNER FELLOWSHIP N A T O ’ s G L O B A L M I S S I O N I N T H E 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y Table of Contents ABSTRACT 1 PREFACE 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 4 INTRODUCTION 5 THE ENLARGEMENT DEBATE IN THE 1990s 8 Historical Context: Setting the Stage 8 Critical Position Toward the Debate 11 Europe: Divided or United? 14 Extended Deterrence vs. Diminished Credibility 16 Military Doctrine vs. Military Spending 18 Expanded NATO, Expanded Security Risks? 19 Russia: Friend or Foe? 21 American “Manifest Destiny” 22 Summary Reflection on the Enlargement Debate 24 CONCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS: DEFENSE VS. SECURITY 27 Ideal Types Approach in International Affairs 27 A Concise Definition of the 1989 Epochal Change 30 Subject-Origin of Threat 33 Risky Factors and Situations 40 NATO’s Fundamental Identity Dilemma 44 Remark on a Negative Perception of Enlargement 46 Summary Reflection on Conceptualizing Security 48 HISTORICAL DIMENSIONS: THE YUGOSLAV WARS 52 The Early Yugoslav Crisis: A New Institutional Chaos 52 (a) Confusion Regarding Fundamentals 53 (b) European Institutions: Taken by Surprise 55 (c) UN and the Others 58 (d) Diagnosis: Institutional Paralysis 60 Kosovo: A New Kind of War 62 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NATO’s GLOBAL MISSION IN THE 21ST CENTURY THE ATLANTIC CLUB OF BULGARIA 1998-1999 MANFRED WŐRNER FELLOWSHIP (a) A New Concept of Security Implied 63 (b) Human rights vs.
    [Show full text]
  • New Geopolitical Trends in the Globalized World
    New Geopolitical Trends in the Globalized World Оlga G. Leonova In the present article, the characteristic features of the political aspect of global- ization are considered. The consequences of reformatting the global geopolitical space are the following: the decreasing relevance of some geopolitical para- digms, some new characteristics of the geopolitical space, the developing hierar- chy of global political actors, the emergence of new geoeconomic and geopoliti- cal axes forming the structure of the global world, new form of structuring the global world whose major constituents are sub- and macroregions, as well as regional systems and subsystems. Keywords: trends, geopolitical outlines, global world, system, hierarchy, global structure, architecture, pole of multipolar world, centre of power, aspiring cen- tre of power, region, geoeconomic and geopolitical axes. In the two decades since the collapse of the USSR, some new geopolitical contours have been shaped. The Westphalian System has undergone radical changes, whereas the dy- namic processes of globalization have led to the formation of a global world system. The late 20th century evidenced the start of a process of reformatting the global geopo- litical world. This transformation mainly concerned the economy. Consequently, it was reasonable to regard globalization as the building of an integrated global financial and economic space based on new technologies, notably the information technology. At the beginning of the 21st century, it became clear that globalization cannot be reduced to the integrated global economy. Globalization is an objective process of building an inte- grated informational, economic, political, legal, sociocultural and environmental space. Globalization has a number of aspects: economic, political and sociocultural; they are closely intertwined and complement each other.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Growing China a Real Challenge to the U.S. Power?
    International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 5, No. 10(1); October 2015 Is Growing China A Real Challenge To The U.S. Power? Abdul Salaam Khan1 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to discuss the global hegemonic power of the United States of America as presented by different international theorists with special reference to the rise of People’s Republic of China and the possible transition of global power from West to the East. The paper comprises of six parts: first part presents the history and evolution of the US hegemonic power after the World War II, second highlights scholars like Robert Gilpin, Robert Keohane, Joseph Nye, James Petras and Immanuel Waller stein that the American hegemony has declined after the 1970s, thirdly it presents scholars like Stephen Gill and Susan Strange that the hegemonic dominance of the United States in the global affairs is still intact, fourth part discusses the rise of the People’s Republic of China as major challenge to the future US global power, fifthly it presents comparative analysis of the USA and China politically, economically, militarily, educationally, demographically and geographically and at the end it gives long term discussion and analysis in the context of global power of the United States and rising China. 1. Introduction After the World War II, the United States has become hegemonic due to its unmatched economic, military, political and cultural influence in global affairs. The American global order was basically characterized by liberal democracy and free capitalist economy. The hegemonic power of the United States in the post-World War II has been presented differently by different scholars.
    [Show full text]
  • BRICS: Prospects of Cooperation*
    BRICS: Prospects of Cooperation* Oleg A. Alekseenko In the present article BRICS is considered as a form of integration with pe- culiar geographical and functional characteristics which allows considering it as a new type of interstate cooperation. The main focus is on the interaction be- tween the BRICS member countries and their role in the contemporary interna- tional relations. Keywords: BRICS, integration, international organizations, international affairs, policy, new world order, globalization. The current geopolitical trends indicate that today the center of decision-making on global issues is gradually shifting to some new inter-state associations. On the one hand, there emerge regional organizations which promote interests of their members and seek to offer a consolidated position in solving international issues. On the other hand, the former and new centers of power conduct a formal and informal dialogue on the controversial issues in their relations. BRICS represents a framework for a dialogue between countries with different social and economic models, and moreover, belonging to different civilizations. In this con- text it is essential to analyze both, the commonalities and contradictions between the BRICS member countries. China China considers BRICS-cooperation as instrument for the formation of a new, just, and ra- tional world order which will provide favorable conditions for the country's further devel- opment. The PRC officials as well as the Chinese authoritative expert centers regularly con- firm this point in their statements (Yuan 2007). The Chinese urge the BRICS member countries ‘to pay attention to security issues, to strengthen cooperation on major regional affairs and to deepen cooperation in all areas’ (Zhen'min Zhibao 2012b).
    [Show full text]