Abstract
The “assertive turn” in Chinese foreign and security policy and the intensifying US-China great power rivalry developing over the recent decade—and centred in East Asia—are unavoidable consequences of the weakening US unipolarity. The years with China’s “peaceful development” strategy and the accompanying “keeping a low profile” guidelines stand as an intermediate waiting period, where the neorealist rules of the game were on hold. However, applying the neorealist arguments on the specific dynamics under unipolarity developed in particular by Birthe Hansen allows us to understand Beijing’s manoeuvring in the US unipolar world order. This further provides a solid platform to discuss how in a post-US unipolar world order to avoid US-China great power rivalry in East Asia developing into military conflict.
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Sørensen, C.T.N. (2022). The US Unipolar World Order and China’s Rise. 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_13
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