This book brings together a group of leading scholars on international relations to develop and apply the concept of polarity on past and present international relations and discuss its applicability and usefulness in the future. Despite a comprehensive debate on a global power shift, often discussed in terms of the decline of the United States, the crisis in the liberal international order, and the rise of China, IR´s main concept of power, ‘polarity’, remains undertheorized and understudied. The great powers and their importance for dynamics and processes in the international system are central to current debates on international order, but these debates too often suffer from a combination of politicized empirical analysis and reliance on old theoretical debates and conceptualizations, typically originating in the Cold War security environment. In order to meet these challenges, this book updates, conceptualizes, applies and critically debates the concepts of unipolarity, bipolarity, multipolarity and non-polarity in order to understand the current world order.
Author(s): Nina Græger, Bertel Heurlin, Ole Wæver, Anders Wivel
Series: Governance, Security and Development
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 427
City: Cham
Preface and Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction: Understanding Polarity in Theory and History
The Aim
Shared Assumptions and Focal Points
Polarity in Theory and Practice
Structure of the Volume
Conclusions
Notes
References
Part I Theorizing Polarity
2 Polarity Is What Power Does When It Becomes Structure
What Polarity Needs to Do for Structural Realism to Work
The History of Power, Balance of Power, and Polarity
Systemic, Regional, and Environmental Polarity
Polarity Policies?
Conclusion
Notes
References
3 Polarity and Threat Perception in Foreign Policy: A Dynamic Balancing Model
A Neoclassical Realist Model—Balancing Power and Threat
Dynamic Balancing Under Different Polarities
Conclusion
Notes
References
4 Uneasy Partners: Neorealism and Unipolar World Order
Birthe Hansen’s Theory of Unipolarity
Neorealism’s Misleading Assumptions
From the Hedgehog to the Fox: A Model for Understanding the Current World Order
Domestic Conditions in Major Types of State
Insecurity in the Global South
Liberal Values and the Need for Cooperation
Conclusion
Notes
References
5 Combining Polarity and Geopolitics: The Explanatory Power of Geostructural Realism
A New U.S.-China Bipolar System
China and the Rest
Net Versus Gross Power Measures
Balancing, Proxy Wars and Stability in a New Bipolar System
The Relative Stability Across Bipolar Systems
Fewer Proxy Wars
Potential Future Unipolar or Multipolar System
Conclusion
Notes
References
6 Between Polarity and Foreign Policy: Freedom of Manoeuvre Is the Missing Link
Freedom of Manoeuvre: The Concept
From Systemic Unipolarity to Multipolarity
Systemic Multipolarity and Bilateral Disciplinings
In the Russian Penalty Box
A Letter from James Mattis
Chinese “Internal Affairs”
India Insulted
Summing Up: Ambiguity and Misjudgements
The “Chicken” Fallacy and Interaction with Internal Freedom
Ad hoc Learning About Freedom of Manoeuvre
Towards a Realist Foreign-Policy Theory: Freedom of Manoeuvre Is Key
From Polarity to Freedom of Manoeuvre
From Freedom of Manoeuvre to Foreign Policy
Policy Advice and a Critical Stance
Notes
References
7 What Future for Small States After Unipolarity? Strategic Opportunities and Challenges in the Post-American World Order
The Emergent Structure of the International System: Uni-, Bi-, Multi- or Non-polar?
The Strategic Menu of Small States in the Emerging International Order
Hiding
Shelter Seeking
Hedging and Multivectorism
Offensive Pragmatism
Conclusion
Note
References
8 Critical, Restless, and Relevant: Realism as Normative Thought
Critical: Realism’s Counter to Liberal Idealism
Restless: How Realists Can Never Quite Trust Any Institutional Foundation
Relevant: Realism and the Enduring Need for Political Restraint
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part II Polarity and International Security
9 Polarity, Non-polarity, and the Risks of A-Polarity
From Superpower Bipolarity to Unipolarity
After Unipolarity and the Rise of Hostile Powers
Diffusion of Power
From Obama to Trump
Indispensability
Notes
References
10 Unipolarity and Nationalism: The Racialized Legacies of an Anglo-Saxon Unipole
The Nature and Consequences of Nationalism
Nationalism, Realism, and Polarity
Understanding the US Unipole
Conclusion
Notes
References
11 Managing the Delta of Unipolarity: Post-Cold War Misalignment of American Political Projects and World Order from DPG92 to Trump
Bringing the Political (Back) In
DPG92 as the Unipole’s Maximization Strategy
Challenges in Aligning Political Projects and World Order
Clinton: Globalization as Economics
Bush: Globalization as Westernization
Obama: Globalization as Multilateralism
Trump: Anti-Globalization as Patriotism
Conclusion
References
12 The Nexus of Systemic Power and Identity: Structural Variations of the US-China Great Power Rivalry
Developing a Constructivist Account of Distributional Structures
Structural Logics of Social Identity
A New Expanded Framework of Distributional Structures
“Identifying” the Structural Constellation of US-China Rivalry
Conclusion
References
13 The US Unipolar World Order and China’s Rise
US Unipolar World Order Assisting China’s Rise
“Keeping a Low Profile” Always Transitional
Conclusion
References
14 Polarity and Realignment in East Asia 1945–2020
Polarity and Realignment
Explaining Patterns of Alignment in East Asia 1945–2020
Conclusion
Annex
Notes
References
15 Polarity, Proliferation, and Restraint: A Market-Centric Approach
Liberal Versus Realist Non-proliferation Regimes
Export Control Victories
Deceleration
Inhibition
Preventing Recidivism
Conclusion
Note
References
16 Unipolarity and Order in the Arctic
The Bipolar Cold War Arctic with US and Soviet Bounded Orders
The Post-Cold War Unipolar Arctic with Liberal Institutions
Sino-American Loose Bipolarity and Russian Search for Multipolarity in the Arctic
Conclusion: The End of Unipolarity and Future Agnostic Order in the Arctic
Note
References
17 Europe in the U.S.-Russian Security Dilemma: Is There a Way Out?
Europe’s Security Is Coupled to U.S. Security
The U.S.-Russian Security Dilemma
Europe in the U.S.-Russia Security Dilemma
Is “Decoupling” an Option to Escape the U.S.-Russian Security Dilemma?
How Can Europeans Contribute to (Better) Managing the U.S.-Russian Security Dilemma?
Reincorporating System-level Dynamics into European Analyses
Conclusion
Notes
References
18 The Discourse on the US/NATO and the EU in Danish Foreign Policy: The Language of Unipolarity?
Theoretical Framework2
Discourse on Danish Foreign Policy—The Role the EU, NATO, and the US3
The Period After 2014
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part III The Future of Polarity and International Order
19 A U.S. Strategy of Judicious Retrenchment
Judicious Retrenchment
Setting Geographic Priorities: Quit the Periphery, Hold in the Heartland
Pursuing Pragmatic Partnerships
Sustaining America’s Exceptionalist Calling
A Pluralistic Global Order
Notes
References
20 An Emerging World that Defies Historical Analogy
Popular Historical Analogies for Emerging World Politics
Another 1914?
Another Hitler?
Cold War 2.0?
Old Versus New Bipolarity
The Dominance of Negative Power
How to Succeed in a Non-Polar World
Notes
References
21 Polarity and International Order: Past and Future
International Order and Polarity
Neither Bi- nor Multipolarity
Polarity’s Declining Analytical Purchase
The Distribution of Power and the Future of the ILO
Conclusion
Note
References
Index
