Revisiting responses to power preponderance : going beyond the balancing-bandwagoning dichotomy.

Abstract

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing body of literature in international

relations that looks at the unipolar world order that emerged from the ashes of the Cold

War. Most of these works, however, tend to focus on describing the characteristics of

this unipolar world or predicting its longevity. This working paper contends that such

approaches do not pay adequate attention to how non-leading states in the international

system are attempting to respond to American primacy of power in this age of unipolarity.

The author argues that conventional conceptions of international politics that frame state

reactions to superior power within the bounds of balancing and bandwagoning are

inadequate to understand how state actors are trying to advance and preserve interests in

relation to preponderant American power.