This timely and authoritative book is a general overview of Great Power politics and strategy from 1500 to the present.

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.

With 200,000 hardcover copies in print, this book has received worldwide attention. Kennedy explains how the various world powers have risen and fallen over the five centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in Western Europe.

The idea that world politics can be understood in terms of a US dominated unipolarity became generally accepted during the 1990s. Following the September 11 attacks, however, US foreign policy took an imperial turn and many began to question the form, style and substance of US leadership at the start of the 21st Century. But why is the US behaving as if it lived in a world of enemies? What can other great powers do to change the behaviour of the US, and what will be the consequences if they fail? Could the EU and China become superpowers alongside the US? And what would happen if the US stepped down from its superpowers role creating a world with only great powers and no superpowers? In this important new book, Barry Buzan seeks to provide answers to these pressing questions. He begins by introducing the core concepts of polarity and identity in world politics, which he uses to develop three possible scenarios for the future development of the international political system. Buzan contends that we are not living in a strictly unipolar world, where the great powers are helpless in the face of the US. Instead he argues that the existence of great powers alongside an American superpower plays a crucial role in creating both opportunities and responsibilities which will shape the way in which world politics unfolds in the coming decades. What the great powers do or don't do will be crucial to how long US dominance lasts. It will also help determine whether the period of American hegemony will develop or destroy the unique multilateral international society built up by US foreign policy over the last half century.

This is a study of great power relations – China, India, and Russia – among themselves and with the hegemon – United States. Ahrari argues that the next decade may witness the emergence of a bipolar order where China's dominance in economics is certain; however, China will not seriously challenge the military dominance of the U.S.

"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.

The years 1900 to 1954 marked the transformation from an exotic, colonized "Far East" to a more autonomous, prominent "Asia Pacific". This anthology examines the grand strategies of great powers as they vied for influence and ultimately hegemony in the region. At the turn of the twentieth century, the main contestants included the venerable British Empire and the aspiring Japan and United States. The unwieldy leviathan of China, the European imperial holdings in Southeast Asia, and the expanses of the western Pacific emerged as battlegrounds in literal and geopolitical terms. Other less powerful nations, such as India, Burma, Australia, and French Indochina, also exercised agency in crafting grand strategies to further their interests and in their interactions with those great powers. Among the many factors affecting all nations invested in the Asia Pacific were such traditional elements as economics, military power, and diplomacy, as well as fluid traits like ideology, culture, and personality. The era saw the decline of British and European influence in the Asia Pacific, the rise and fall of Japanese imperialism, the emergence of American primacy, the ongoing struggle for independence in Southeast Asia, and China's resurrection as a contender for hegemony. Great powers shifted and so too did their grand strategies.