Abstract
This article provides an analysis of the current strategic rivalry between the USA and the People’s Republic of China in the context of the history of international relations and the expansion of civilisations. It demonstrates that most attempts to analyse the substance of this important phenomenon in world politics are based on an excessively narrow view, in terms of both world history and the entire system of modern international relations. The article concludes that the current Sino-American conflict is neither purely civilisational nor geopolitical, but indicates that a civilisationally united Westernised world is entering a period of political disunity. This is how the conflict should be understood, and the process involved should be referred to, in today’s foreign policy language, as the transition from unipolarity to multipolarity.
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Notes
At present, several scholars of international relations (e.g. Barry Buzan and Sergey Karaganov) are developing the idea of the key role played by military technology and power in the evolution of international relations, but such a factor needs to be considered within the broader historical context. See: Barry Buzan (1987), Sergey Karaganov (2020).
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This study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Project Number 21-514-93002
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Lukin, A. Sino-US strategic rivalry: the end of the age of Westernism?. Int Polit 60, 537–553 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-023-00466-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-023-00466-4