The rise of regions: conflict and cooperation

Abstract

What happens when America's hegemony is over? The rise of regions argues that the United States and western Europe are already in relative decline, facing an emerging great power (China) and a dissatisfied revisionist challenger (Russia). In the book, the contributors rely on A. F. K. Organski's power transition theory—the only power distribution theory to survive the Cold War that is able to account for peace and war over the last three centuries (p. 2). But the book also goes beyond the power transition theory to encapsulate major perspectives, including the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine, the Thucydides trap and the regional security complex theory. With a set of case-studies, the contributors demonstrate how regions have become the major points of power transition, as global structures dissipate and great powers transform. Thus, the book reflects on whether power transition theory can survive the ‘second’ Cold War and the rise of regions.