scholarly journals Civil Wars & the Structure of World Power

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry R. Posen

The “policy science” of civil wars, which emerged in the early 1990s, included deeply embedded assumptions about the nature of the international political system. It was taken for granted that the United States would remain the strongest power by a wide margin, and that it would lead a liberal coalition that included virtually all the other strong states in the world. Some students of international politics believe that the nature of the system is changing. Though the United States is likely to remain much more powerful than its global competitors, several consequential powers have emerged to challenge U.S. leadership and produce a multipolar system. As power begins to even out at the top of the international system, the influence of middle powers may also grow. This new constellation of power seems likely to magnify disagreements about how states suffering civil wars should be stabilized, limit preventive diplomacy, produce external intervention that will make for longer and more destructive wars, and render settlements more difficult to police.

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 6-16
Author(s):  
Ruth Ortiz ◽  
Eusebio Ortiz Zarco ◽  
Gerardo Suárez Barrera

This research paper examines the commercial and monetary interdependence that has been built during the period 1990 - 2018 between two main economies of the world; this is an empirical analysis, based on a statistical scrutiny of economic indicators and Granger causalty tests. The result is a contribution to the understanding of the 21st century bundled international system, characterized by a changing global geopolitical environment, where the United States and China are the main actors.  


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 214-215
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Barilleaux

The American political system has many features that set it apart from other governments of the world, but not all are equally apparent. One distinctive aspect is the length and importance of the transition period from one presidential administration to another. In most countries the passage of power occurs almost as soon as the election results are known (consider, e.g., the rapid assumption of power by President Kostunica after Slobodan Milosevic admitted defeat in the September 2000 Yugoslav election), but in the United States roughly ten weeks elapse between the election and inaugu- ration. The American approach, as Charles Jones puts it in this outstanding book, is to transfer power at a "leisurely pace."


2020 ◽  
pp. 186-202
Author(s):  
Alexander Cooley ◽  
Daniel Nexon

After two decades, American global hegemony is almost certainly reaching its expiration date. America will remain a great power, if the not greatest power. But, barring a major shock to emerging powers—and especially China—the world will fully transition to a new global order. This chapter sketches out some possible futures. These include a new bipolar system, perhaps with China and the United States locked in a new Cold War; a multipolar system that maintains the veneer of liberal global governance, but in the service of authoritarianism; and an international system characterized by globalized oligarchy and kleptocracy. There is still time to avoid the worst versions of these orders, and to push back against the full hijacking of liberal institutions in the service of worldwide corruption. But on these, and a number of other matters, American policymakers should assume the window of outsized American influence is fast closing.


Author(s):  
Andrew Preston

Despite rejecting the internationalist marriage Woodrow Wilson had arranged for it with the world, America was still the strongest state in the international system. ‘The American century?’ explains how the myth of isolationism emerged in this period, and why it was so powerful. The Depression did more damage to America’s role in the world than anything in the decades before it, yet in the late 1930s Franklin D. Roosevelt began rebuilding the structures of American power. Thanks to Roosevelt, during World War II the United States transitioned from a major, but often peripheral actor on the world scene, to one of the most powerful states the world has ever seen.


1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Forsyth

The contemporary international system is at once the continuation and the negation ofthe old European states-system. It is the continuation in the sense that the world is nowpeopled with the same kind of political bodies that were formerly concentrated within thearea of Europe alone, namely sovereign states. The overseas empires of Britain, France, Spain, and others, represented both the subordination of the rest of the world to Europe, and the media through which the state as a political structure was exported from Europe. The dissolution of these empires, foreshadowed by the independence of the United States and the emancipation of Spain's Latin American colonies, and accomplished definitively in the half-century following the Great War, signified the extension of inter-state relationships to the world in general, while it marked the end of the domination of the European states in particular.


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 09009
Author(s):  
Irina Minakova ◽  
Tatyana Bukreeva ◽  
Olga Solodukhina ◽  
Artyom Golovin

Research background. Due to the significant role that the United States, Russia and China play in the world political and economic processes, US-Russia-China relations can be recognized as the most important interstate relations in the world, setting the direction for the transformation of the international system. Nowadays, the study of these trilateral relations is a relevant scientific task. The authors, on a systematic basis, have investigated the aspects of interaction between the USA, Russia and China in the modern economy, which opened the way for solving the key issues of international relations. The authors have published several papers on this issue in Russia and abroad, including publications in Scopus and Web of Science indexed journals. Purpose of the article is to analyse the US-Russia-China relations and to determine the directions of their development in the context of globalization of the world economy. Methods. To analyse the interests, a systematic method was used that allows considering the interests of the United States, China and Russia as an holistic, complex mechanism with elements constantly interacting with each other. Findings & Value added. Despite geographical, linguistic, religious, and other distinctions, the United States, China, and Russia have a lot in common. There were historical periods of active and positive cooperation between these three major superpowers. In our opinion, in spite of the current contradictions between the parties, Russia, China and the United States have a mutual concern in harmonizing trilateral interests. However, the existed contradictions are not insoluble.


Author(s):  
Derek S. Reveron ◽  
Nikolas K. Gvosdev

It is axiomatic that the foreign policy decisions of any country, including those of the United States, should be derived and based upon an understanding of the “national interest.” Yet there is no single, overarching conception of what constitutes the national interest or what should be considered as national interests. We see the idea of the national interest as an important starting point—a concept that enables national security policymakers to articulate what matters to the country and how a nation should set its priorities. National interests are enduring, such as protecting the integrity of the state and promoting economic prosperity. The domestic political system, international system, and organizational interests within the national security bureaucracy also shape national interests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-545

The Biden administration's foreign policy emphasizes repairing U.S. alliances and returning the United States to a “position of trusted leadership” to counter increasing challenges from Russia and especially China. The U.S. Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (INSSG), released in March 2021, notes that the United States must “contend with the reality that the distribution of power across the world is changing.” It highlights that China, which has “rapidly become more assertive,” is the only country “potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system,” while “Russia remains determined to enhance its global influence and play a disruptive role on the world stage.” To reaffirm established international norms, the Biden administration has acted both unilaterally and in coordination with long-standing allies to impose sanctions in response to human rights abuses, malicious cyber activity, and election influence. The administration has also taken steps to cement alliances in the Indo-Pacific and with the West.


1997 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson W. Polsby

SURELY IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VARIETIES OF PEACEABLE AND legitimate political opposition the American political system leads the world, and from a comparative perspective the United States is therefore extremely atypical. This essay will review briefly some of the more familiar ways in which political opposition in the United States is expressed and encouraged, will consider some of the consequences for a political system so rich in opportunities for opposition, and in conclusion will discuss changes in patterns of opposition over the last 30 years.


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