Global Peaceful Change and Accommodation of Rising Powers: A Scholarly Perspective

Year 2017, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 85 - 94, 01.06.2017

T.V. Paul

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.319910

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Can the accommodation of rising powers in the
international system be accomplished peacefully? Prof. Paul, in his recent publication,
argued that if the established and status quo powers hold grand strategies which
allow for peaceful accommodation, this is feasible. He clarifies the
differences between accommodation and appeasement and the value of soft balancing,
relying on institutions, economic diplomacy, and limited ententes as mechanisms
for restraining aggressive behavior of major powers. Variations in current US
policies toward Russia and China are discussed. Non-accommodation of major
powers as well as minor powers has major internal and external consequences. He
concludes by arguing that contemporary rising powers, such as China and India,
have much greater prospects of rising peacefully than previous era great
powers, partially due to the opportunities offered by the globalization
process. However, these states must initiate economic and developmental
programs for other states, without neocolonial overtones, in order to increase global
development and their own status. The discipline of IR has a special duty to
encourage students and policy makers to develop strategies of peaceful transformation,
rather than war, as the main mechanism of change.

Keywords

Rising powers, Peaceful change, India, China, Russi, Change, the US

References

• Kang, David C. East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute. Columbia University Press, 2010.
• Paul, T.V. Restraining Great Powers: Soft Balancing from Empires to the Global Era. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, forthcoming, 2018.
• Paul, T. V., ed. Accommodating Rising Powers. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
• Paul, T. V., Deborah Welch Larson, and William C. Wohlforth. Status in World Politics. Cambridge University Press, 2014.