Abstract
For seven decades, the United States functioned as the world’s leading hegemonic power, playing the key role in creating and sustaining an open, liberal rules-based international order. That role was not truly global, however, since it did not encompass the Soviet bloc, nor Mao’s China. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, America’s role became one of unipolarity. That came to an end in the early to mid-years of the 2010s. Revisionist powers, China, Russia, and Iran have increasingly challenged regional and global order. The current configuration of world politics is commonly described as a return to great power competition, but none of the revisionist powers accept the real premises of a rules-based open world order. The U.S. role thus remains unique in sustaining the norms, practices, and institutions of that order. This leads to three key research questions. First, to what extent does the U.S. remain essential for a decent rules-based international order? Second, is the U.S. still capable of playing such a role? Third, what are the likely consequences if the U.S. is unwilling or incapable of doing so? The latter outcome would likely result in a form of a-polarity in which the rules-based system lacks a major power committed to sustaining it. Aspirations for non-hegemonic regime maintenance are a fantasy. The result, instead, would be worsening fragmentation and increasing risk of conflict.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albright, M. K. (1998, February 19). Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Interview on NBC-TV ‘The Today Show’ with Matt Lauer. Columbus, Ohio, Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State.
Bacevich, A. (2020). The age of illusions: How America squandered its Cold War victory. Metropolitan Books.
Biden, J. R., Jr. (2020, March/April). Why America must lead again. Foreign Affairs, 99(2), 64–76 at 65, 76.
Biden, J. (2021). The power of America’s example: The Biden plan for leading the democratic world to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Retrieved November 11, 2020, from https://joebiden.com/americanleadership/
Carmon, Y., & Savyon, A. (2017, October 30). Is the JCPOA working? (Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 1354). Middle East Media Research Institute. https://www.memri.org/reports/jcpoa-working
Clinton, W. J. (1997). President William Jefferson Clinton. Second Inaugural Address. U.S. Inaugural Addresses.
Dawisha, K. (2014). Putin’s kleptocracy: Who owns Russia? Simon & Schuster.
Deudney, D., & Ikenberry, J. G. (2018, July/August). Liberal world: The resilient order. Foreign Affairs, pp. 16–24 at 16.
Economist. (2020, April 16). Thanking big brother: China’s post-covid propaganda push. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/china/2020/04/16/chinas-post-covid-propaganda-push
Economist. (2021, January 9). Advantage Beijing. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/01/09/how-to-deal-with-china
Edelman, E., & Takeyh, R. (2020, May/June). The next Iranian revolution. Foreign Affairs, 99(3), 131–145 at 142.
Eilperin, J. (2016, November 21). Wrapping up his last foreign trip, Obama tries to make headway on Syria. Washington Post.
Gaddis, J. L. (1989). The long peace: Inquiries into the history of the Cold War. Oxford University Press.
Gilpin, R. (1981). War and change in world politics. Cambridge University Press.
Gowa, J. S. (1983). Closing the gold window: Domestic politics and the end of Bretton Woods. Cornell University Press.
Huntington, S. P. (1988/1989, Winter). The U.S.—Decline or renewal? Foreign Affairs, 67(2), 76.
Kennedy, P. (1987). The rise and fall of the great powers: Economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000. Random.
Kennedy, P. (2002, February 1). The eagle has landed. Financial Times (London).
Kindleberger, M. (1973). The world in depression: 1929–1939. University of California Press.
Klein, M., & Pettis, M. (2020). Trade wars are class wars: How rising inequality distorts the global economy and threatens international peace. Yale University Press.
Krauthammer, C. (1999, November 26). Not for Moi, thanks. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1999/11/26/not-for-moi-thanks/0eb730fa-332c-42f4-a69e-34a3546c64e3/
Kupchan, C. A., & Trubowitz, P. L. (2021, May/June). Why an internationalist foreign policy needs a stronger domestic foundation. Foreign Affairs, 100(3), 92–101.
Lieber, R. (2016). Retreat and its consequences: American foreign policy and the problem of world order. Cambridge University Press.
Lind, J., & Wohlforth, W. (2019, March/April). The future of the liberal order is conservative. Foreign Affairs, 98(2), 70–80.
Mandelbaum, M. (2005). The case for Goliath: How America acts as the world’s government in the 21st century (p. 226). Public Affairs.
Mearsheimer, J. (2018). The great delusion: Liberal dreams and international realities. Yale University Press.
Medvedev, S. (2020). The return of the Russian Leviathan. Polity.
Olsen, M., Jr., & Zeckhauser, R. (1966, August). An economic theory of alliances. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 48(3), 266–279.
Palmer, J. (2020, April 15). Why Chinese embassies have embraced aggressive diplomacy. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/15/chinese-embassies-embrace-aggressive-diplomacy-coronavirus-pandemic-misinformation/
Posen, B. (2014). Restraint: A new foundation for U.S. grand strategy. Cornell University Press.
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.
Putnam, R. D., & Garrett, S. R. (2020). The upswing: How America came together a century ago and how we can do it again. Simon & Schuster.
Schmitt, G. (2019, February 7). The China dream: Their goals and ours. The American Interest. https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/02/07/the-china-dream-their-goals-and-ours/
Slaughter, A.-M., & LaForge, G. (2021, March/April). Opening up the order: A more inclusive international system. Foreign Affairs, 100(2), 154–162.
Stent, A. (2019). Putin’s world: Russia against the west and with the rest. Twelve.
Stent, A. (2020, February). Russia and China: Axis of revisionists? The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/research/russia-and-china-axis-of-revisionists/?fbclid=IwAR0NY1b0Sp0HEWl1dJDc9j1hJsjSeOg_1Ghosr0W718vH7BkQmn1uq0GI2A
Sushentsov, A. A., & Wohlforth, W. C. (2020, June). The tragedy of US-Russia relations: NATO centrality and the revisionists’ spiral. International Politics, 57, 427–450 at 428.
Trachtenberg, M. (2020/2021, Winter). The United States and the NATO Non-extension assurances of 1990: New light on an old problem? International Security, 45(3), 162–203.
The New York Times. (2013, August 31). Text of President Obama’s remarks on Syria. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/world/middleeast/text-of-president-obamas-remarks-on-syria.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0
The White House. (2016, November 20). Press conference by President Obama in Lima, Peru, November 20. White House. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/20/press-conference-president-obama-lima-peru
The White House. (2021, February 4). Remarks by President Biden on America’s place in the world. U.S. Department of State Headquarter, Washington, DC. Retrieved March 4, 2021, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/04/remarks-by-president-biden-on-americas-place-in-the-world/
Trubowitz, P., & Burgoon, B. (2020, June 23). The retreat of the west. Perspectives on Politics.
Walt, S. M. (2018). The hell of good intentions: America’s foreign policy elite and the decline of U.S. Primacy. Farrah, Straus and Giroux.
Waltz, N. K. (1979). Theory of International Politics. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.
Waltz, K. (1986). Reflections on theory of international politics: A response to my critics. In R. O. Keohane (Ed.), Neorealism and its critics (p. 343). Columbia University Press.
Wertheim, S. (2020a, March/April). The price of primacy: Why America shouldn’t dominate the world. Foreign Affairs.
Wertheim, S. (2020b). Tomorrow the world: The birth of U.S. global supremacy. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lieber, R.J. (2022). Polarity, Non-polarity, and the Risks of A-Polarity. In: Græger, N., Heurlin, B., Wæver, O., Wivel, A. (eds) Polarity in International Relations. Governance, Security and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05505-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05505-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-05504-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-05505-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)