The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics : China, the United States, and Geostructural Realism / Øystein Tunsjø.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tunsjø, Øystein, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bipolarity (International relations).

United States--Foreign relations--China.

United States.

China--Foreign relations--United States.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (284 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

China, the United States, and geostructural realism

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international system has been unipolar, centered on the United States. But the rise of China foreshadows a change in the distribution of power. Øystein Tunsjø shows that the international system is moving toward a U.S.-China standoff, bringing us back to bipolarity—a system in which no third power can challenge the top two.The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics surveys the new era of superpowers to argue that the combined effects of the narrowing power gap between China and the United States and the widening power gap between China and any third-ranking power portend a new bipolar system that will differ in crucial ways from that of the last century. Tunsjø expands Kenneth N. Waltz's structural-realist theory to examine the new bipolarity within the context of geopolitics, which he calls “geostructural realism.” He considers how a new bipolar system will affect balancing and stability in U.S.-China relations, predicting that the new bipolarity will not be as prone to arms races as the previous era's; that the risk of limited war between the two superpowers is likely to be higher in the coming bipolarity, especially since the two powers are primarily rivals at sea rather than on land; and that the superpowers are likely to be preoccupied with rivalry and conflict in East Asia instead of globally. Tunsjø presents a major challenge to how international relations understands superpowers in the twenty-first century.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: A New Bipolar System

PART I: PAST AND PRESENT POLARITY

2. Explaining and Understanding Polarity

3. Contemporary U.S.-China Bipolarity

4. Distinguishing Top-Ranking States and Comparing Bipolarity

PART II: SYSTEMIC EFFECTS: PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR AND STABILITY

5. Strong Balancing Postponed

6. U.S.-China Relations and the Risk of War

7. The Return of Bipolarity: Global and Regional Effects

8. Conclusion: Geostructural Realism

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Aug 2018)

Other Format:

Online version: Tunsjø, Øystein, author. Return of bipolarity in world politics

ISBN:

9780231546904

0231546904

OCLC:

1023552080