Shifting Strands in the Global Balance of Power

Over the past few years, there’s been a growing debate about the implications of China’s rise for the future of the liberal international order. Is China a revisionist power that is seeking to craft a Sino-centric world order? Is it a fragile superpower whose actions are driven by regime insecurity? Is it a reluctant stakeholder that must be engaged, accommodated and perhaps even coerced into assuming greater responsibility within the prevailing system? Or perhaps, geo-economic and geo-political shifts have already rendered this debate about the fate of the post-war order moot. For instance, John Mearsheimer argues that the world has already entered a phase of multipolarity with a realist order emerging.