Synopsis

American power today is without historical precedent, dominating the world system. No other nation has enjoyed such formidable advantages in military, economic, technological, cultural, and political capabilities. How stable is this unipolar American order? Will the age-old dynamic of the balance of power reemerge as the other great powers rise up to challenge American preeminence? America Unrivaled examines these questions. The experts in this volume contend that full-scale balancing in this new world order has not yet occurred. They ask if a backlash against American dominance is just around the corner, or if characteristics of the current situation alter or eliminate the entire logic of power balancing.

American power poses threats, as do the likely responses to that power, the experts argue in America Unrivaled. The definition of these threats is critical to understanding future political trends and learning whether an original (and stable) world system has already come into existence. Most of the contributors agree that novel features of the American hegemony and the wider global order make an automatic return to a traditional balance of power order unlikely.

Foreign Affairs

If there was one thing that students of international relations thought they knew, it was that power breeds resentment, resistance, and eventually balancing. When the collapse of the Soviet Union left the United States standing alone at the top of the international system, even optimists foresaw only a temporary "unipolar moment," and pessimists looked for a quick return to multipolarity. Defying all predictions, however, over the last decade the United States has gone from strength to strength. It has increased its military, economic, and political lead over other countries and cemented its position as the most powerful country not just in the current international state system but in all modern history. Moreover, although this primacy has indeed produced resentment, it has not — or at least, not yet — produced the sort of great-power balancing that international relations theorists expected. Ikenberry's excellent new collection of essays brings together some of the best minds in the field to ask, Why not? Although the authors often disagree with each other, a common theme that emerges is that the relatively restrained and liberal nature of contemporary American hegemony might make it more palatable to other countries than were previous hegemonies. Whether this is in fact the case, and, if so, whether it will survive the Bush administration's aggressive approach to foreign policy, remains to be seen. Still, this book is a fine effort to take stock of the nature of the post-Cold War international system and a worthy attempt to train academic theorizing on practical concerns.