The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers in the Twenty-first Century: China's Rise and the Fate of America's Global Position

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Brooks ◽  
William C. Wohlforth

Unipolarity is arguably the most popular concept used to analyze the U.S. global position that emerged in 1991, but the concept is totally inadequate for assessing how that position has changed in the years since. A new framework that avoids unipolarity's conceptual pitfalls and provides a systematic approach to measuring how the distribution of capabilities is changing in twenty-first-century global politics demonstrates that the United States will long remain the only state with the capability to be a superpower. In addition, China is in a class by itself, one that the unipolarity concept cannot explain. To assess the speed with which China's rise might transform this into something other than a one-superpower system, analogies from past power transitions are misleading. Unlike past rising powers, China is at a much lower technological level than the leading state, and the gap separating Chinese and U.S. military capabilities is much larger than it was in the past. In addition, the very nature of power has changed: the greatly enhanced difficulty of converting economic capacity into military capacity makes the transition from a great power to a superpower much harder now than it was in the past. Still, China's rise is real and change is afoot.

Author(s):  
Christopher J. Fettweis

Security is relative. No state is ever fully safe, just as no individual is ever completely free from danger. However, when U.S. security is considered next to that of any other state, it is hard to reach the conclusion that Washington faces much serious danger. The United States is simultaneously the safest and most fearful of all the great powers of the twenty-first century. This chapter discusses some of the structural and psychological factors that led to the overestimation of danger so common among U.S. analysts and policymakers. Why is it that many serious observers continue to believe that the current era is so dangerous, and even look to the past with a sense of nostalgia? Why do we fear so much?


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A Lake

Abstract The debate about China’s rise and future United States–China relations has focused on the purpose to which China’s growing international power will be put. This article focuses on the form of China’s power, distinguishing between domination and authority. Different great powers have, at different times, chosen one, the other, or more commonly differing mixes of the two forms. How China chooses now and in the future will have a significant effect on its relationships with other states, and through them on its relationship with the United States. The first section explores the differences between domination and authority as strategies for the exercise of international power. The second section summarizes a theory of authority with particular relevance to China today. Though necessarily speculative, this section identifies where China is most likely to choose one strategy over the other as its international influence expands. The final section examines the domestic impediments in China to the choice of authority. While both China and the United States might be better off in a world in which the former constructs an international hierarchy to parallel the latter’s, the conclusion draws a relatively pessimistic assessment of the prospects for cooperation between the two emerging superpowers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Sharon E. Mace, MD, FACEP, FAAP ◽  
Aishwarya Sharma, BS

Hospitals, which care for some of the most vulnerable individuals, have been impacted by disasters in the past and are likely to be affected by future disasters. Yet data on hospital evacuations are infrequent and outdated, at best. This goal of this study was to determine the characteristics and frequency of disasters in the United States that have resulted in hospital evacuations by an appraisal of the literature from 2000 to 2017. There were 158 hospital evacuations in the United States over 18 years. The states with the highest number of evacuations were Florida (N = 39), California (N = 30), and. Texas (N = 15). The reason for the evacuation was “natural” in 114 (72.2 percent), made-man “intentional” 14 (8.9 percent), and man-made “unintentional” or technological related to internal hospital infrastructure 30 (19 percent).The most common natural threats were hurricanes (N = 65) (57 percent), wildfires (N = 21) (18.4 percent), floods (N = 10) (8.8 percent), and storms (N = 8) (7 percent). Bombs/ bomb threats were the most common reason (N = 8) (57.1 percent) for a hospital evacuation resulting from a manmade intentional disaster, followed by armed gunman (N = 4) (28.6 percent). The most frequent infrastructure problems included hospital fires/smoke (N = 9) (30 percent), and chemical fumes (N = 7) (23.3 percent). Of those that reported the duration and number of evacuees, 30 percent of evacuations lasted over 24 h and the number of evacuees was 100 in over half (55.2 percent) the evacuations. This information regarding hospital evacuations should allow hospital administrators, disaster planners, and others to better prepare for disasters that result in the need for hospital evacuation.


Author(s):  
Christopher Preble ◽  
William Ruger

This chapter uses a quote by Barack Obama to outline how foreign relations in the twenty-first century, especially for great powers such as the United States, should be handled with deftness, caution, and prudence. It emphasizes the idea that people often take action without knowing the consequences. The authors highlight the need for wisdom, patience, and restraint in important political situations and argue that Obama’s diplomatic approach provides a good model when considering a new strategy to replace approaches that have proved ineffective, counterproductive, or disruptive to what remains of the international order Woodrow Wilson helped forge.


1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara G. Cox ◽  
Richter H. Moore

The twenty-first century will present challenges to law enforcement that will make the past years' look tame. Society will become increasingly multi-cultural and multilingual; we are far more heterogeneous than ever before. During the recent decades, we have experienced population growth, racial diversity, and increased ethnicity in our society. Twenty-first century law enforcement must be prepared to deal with the diversities and complexness of our ever changing society. Qualified law enforcement personnel with adequate educational backgrounds and sufficient training is a necessity to meet the challenges they will face each day. This National Study will provide some ideas on law enforcement training and education in the United States and some insight of whether present standards will meet the twenty-first century needs.


Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy

Until recently, East Asia was a boiling pot of massacre and blood-letting. Yet, almost unnoticed by the wider world, it has achieved relative peace over the past three decades.1 At the height of the Cold War, East Asia accounted for around 80 percent of the world’s mass atrocities. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, it accounted for less than 5 percent....


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