The Ascendancy of Regional Powers in Contemporary US-China Relations Rethinking the Great Power Rivalry

Great power competition is back on the world stage, and today’s international system is home to regional influences on great power relations that cannot be ignored. The United States’ unipolar moment is long over, and China’s hegemonic ambitions find expression in a comprehensive global competition with the US that plays out across multiple spheres of world politics. The US-China rivalry can be felt in geostrategic, economic, governance, diplomacy, intelligence, and technological spheres, to name a few. Most accounts of China-US relations in the context of great power conflict emphasize the many ways in which this rivalry has a ripple effect across the globe, with an impact upon the relations and interests of smaller powers. And while these effects are considerable and important, this book contends that attention must also be paid to the ways in which smaller, regional states have the potential to shape this great power rivalry. Put simply, great powers both shape, and are shaped by, smaller states. Any understanding of contemporary great power relations between the US and China requires both a top down, but also a bottom up consideration of the interplay between great powers and regional ones. Often the interests of regional powers are rooted in domestic considerations such as their identities and national interests, and these influences transcend borders and often have an impact upon the great powers. This book considers these smaller, regional actors and attempts to measure the extent to which they influence the US-China rivalry. For this study, constructivist theory, which prioritizes the agency that regional powers enjoy, is loosely used as a tool to enable a more robust and comprehensive understanding of the influences on the contemporary great power relationship. Each of the book’s chapters represents a region, or part of a region, that enjoys a considerable impact upon US-China relations. 

1. Introduction: Rethinking and Reframing the Great Power Rivalry.- 2. US-China Relations: From Engagement to Competition.- 3. South Asia in U.S.-China Great Power Competition.- 4. The Material and Ideational Forces Behind Japan’s Shifting Identity in the Face of the China-US Rivalry.- 5. From Hedging to Balancing: Australia’s China Policy and Implications for US-China Rivalry.- 6. The Kingmaker’s Conundrum: South Korea Navigating the Sino-US Peer Competition.- 7. ASEAN’s Agency amid U.S.-China Rivalry: Small-State Hedging across the Twin Chessboards.- 8. Last Among Unequals: Russia and the Contemporary Great Power Rivalry.- 9. New Europe on the New Silk Road: Central, East and Southeast Europe amid US-China Rivalry.- 10. The EU's Strategic Readjustment and its Impact on US-China Relations.- 11. Never Going to Let You Go: The Middle East, Great Power Competition, and the Rise of China.- 12. Stoking the US-China Rivalry: Zimbabweand the Internationalization of its Anti-Sanctions Agenda.- 13. Latin America’s Role in the Great Power Competition.- 14. Managing the Sino-American Arctic Rivalry.- 15. Conclusion. 

Kari Roberts is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University (MRU). She is also a Coordinator of the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN).

Saira Bano is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, History, and Politics at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops, British Columbia. Her research focuses on the nuclear non-proliferation regime, nuclear weapons issues in South Asia and IR theories.