The declining influence of the superpowers in key regions of the world has permitted states such as Israel, in the Middle East and India, in South Asia, to seek geopolitical influence. This study explores the ways in which aspiring regional hegemons view threats to their aspirations and respond to these threats. The contributors analyze important t

The bitter U.S. experience in Vietnam and the pain inflicted on theSoviet Union by its Afghanistan adventure have caused Washington andMoscow to rethink the costs and benefits of unilateral military interventionon behalf of threatened clients, especially in the third world. Also, asthe Cold War winds down, the crusading spirit that has driven superpowercompetition since the end of World War II appears increasingly anachronistic.Expenditures by the superpowers in pursuit of military superiority,or even to ensure parity, are now criticized for the security theydo not provide or for detracting from economic growth. The lattercriticism has grown in importance as the U.S. economy has confrontednew challenges from Japan and Germany and as the Soviet economystruggles to avoid collapse. Thus when Saddam Hussein's August 1990invasion of Kuwait challenged the political and economic status quo inthe oil-rich Middle East, neither the United States nor the Soviet Unionresponded unilaterally. Cooperatively they crafted an international consensusto confront the challenge.

This book adds a new dimension to the discussion of the relationship between the great powers and the weaker states that align with them—or not. Previous studies have focused on the role of the larger (or super) power and how it manages its relationships with other states, or on how great or major powers challenge or balance the hegemonic state. Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons seeks to explain why weaker states follow more powerful global or regional states or tacitly or openly resist their goals, and how they navigate their relationships with the hegemon. The authors explore the interests, motivations, objectives, and strategies of these 'followers'—including whether they can and do challenge the policies and strategies or the core position of the hegemon. Through the analysis of both historical and contemporary cases that feature global and regional hegemons in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Asia, and that address a range of interest areas—from political, to economic and military—the book reveals the domestic and international factors that account for the motivations and actions of weaker states.

In this book, Feliciano de Sá Guimarães offers an original application of Role Theory. He proposes a theory of master role transitions to explain how small powers can change regional powers’ master roles without changing the regional material power distribution. Master role transition is the replacement of an active dominant master role by a dormant or inactive role located within one’s role repertoire. Guimarães argues that only a combination of four necessary conditions can produce a full master role transition: asymmetrical material interdependence, altercasting, domestic contestation and regional contestation. In each one of these conditions, a small power uses material and ideational tools to promote a master role transition within the regional power role repertoire. To test his model, Guimarães turns to five case studies in Latin America, Southern Africa and South Asia: the 2006–2007 Bolivia–Brazil gas crisis, the 2008–2009 Paraguay–Brazil Itaipú Dam crisis, the 2008–2009 Ecuador–Brazil Odebrecht crisis, the 1998 South Africa–Lesotho military intervention crisis and the 1996India–Bangladesh Ganges water crisis. A Theory of Master Role Transition is an excellent resource for those studying both theory and method in International Relations and foreign policy analysis.

"A superb book.…Mearsheimer has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the behavior of great powers."—Barry R. Posen, The National Interest The updated edition of this classic treatise on the behavior of great powers takes a penetrating look at the question likely to dominate international relations in the twenty-first century: Can China rise peacefully? In clear, eloquent prose, John Mearsheimer explains why the answer is no: a rising China will seek to dominate Asia, while the United States, determined to remain the world's sole regional hegemon, will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening. The tragedy of great power politics is inescapable.

How has world order changed since the Cold War ended? Do we live in an age of American empire, or is global power shifting to the East with the rise of China? Arguing that existing ideas about balance of power and power transition are inadequate, this book gives an innovative reinterpretation of the changing nature of U.S. power, focused on the 'order transition' in East Asia. Hegemonic power is based on both coercion and consent, and hegemony is crucially underpinned by shared norms and values. Thus hegemons must constantly legitimize their unequal power to other states. In periods of strategic change, the most important political dynamics centre on this bargaining process, conceived here as the negotiation of a social compact. This book studies the re-negotiation of this consensual compact between the U.S., China, and other states in post-Cold War East Asia. It analyses institutional bargains to constrain and justify power; attempts to re-define the relationship between a regional community and the global economic order; the evolution of great power authority in regional conflict management, and the salience of competing justice claims in memory disputes. It finds that U.S. hegemony has been established in East Asia after the Cold War mainly because of the complicity of key regional states. But the new social compact also makes room for rising powers and satisfies smaller states' insecurities. The book controversially proposes that the East Asian order is multi-tiered and hierarchical, led by the U.S. but incorporating China, Japan, and other states in the layers below it.

Since 1992 - the end of the Cold War - Brazil has been slowly and quietly carving a niche for itself in the international community: that is a regional leader in Latin America. How and why is the subject of Sean Burges' investigations.