Rising Power and Power Transitions

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The rise and fall of states is a central theme in international relations research from Thucydides to modern power transition theory to contemporary debates about the rise of China. This panel brings together a diverse set of theoretical perspectives and historical applications spanning the last half millennium. William Thompson examines the relationship between rise and fall at the global and regional levels, between periodic wars for global dominance and wars for regional hegemony. Christiaan Bedrij-Arpa and Jack Levy question the standard focus on industrialization as the primary source of power transitions, posit financial revolutions as an important (if infrequent) mechanism, and examine the rise of Britain to global predominance in the eighteenth century. Tudor Onea and Jonathan DiCicco focus on the grand strategies of rising powers, status-quo powers, and declining powers, with applications to China, the US, and Russia in the contemporary system. Jennifer Lind explores the demographic sources of rising power and their interaction with social and economic institutions to explain the rise (or non-rise) of potential great powers to the top rank. Discussants Mark Brawley and William Mulligan bring considerable theoretical and historical expertise to the panel.

Sub Unit

• Division 19: International Security 

Individual Presentations

• Wars of Global Succession and Regional Hegemony - William R. Thompson

• Financial Revolutions and Power Transitions, 1600-1815 - Jack S. Levy, Rutgers University

• Great Power Competition and Grand Strategy in the International Game of Thrones - Tudor Andrei Onea, Bilkent University; Jonathan M. DiCicco, Canisius College

Chair

• Jack S. Levy Rutgers University

Discussants

• Mark R. Brawley McGill University

• William Mulligan University College Dublin