America Unrivaled

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.

“"This volume taps realist, liberal, and constructivist scholarship to deliver a number of competing and complementary conclusions on the potential return to traditional great power politics. . . .This is highly valuable for both its theoretical insights and relevance to current discussions on US foreign policy."-Virginia Quarterly Review, 79:3”

"As the US diminishes its investment in the global public good by acting unilaterally, so others may feel the sting of American power more strongly. In a telling essay by Josef Joffe, in the book edited by G. John Ikenberry, America Unrivaled, we are reminded that primacy does not come cheap, and that the price is measured not just in dollars and cents, but above all in the currency of obligation. A truly 'great' power must do more than merely deny others the reason and opportunity to challenge or balance it... This book deserves to be read."-Christopher Coker, Times Literary Supplement, May 23, 2003 "This volume taps realist, liberal, and constructivist scholarship to deliver a number of competing and complementary conclusions on the potential return to traditional great power politics...This is highly valuable for both its theoretical insights and relevance to current discussions on US foreign policy."-Virginia Quarterly Review, 79:3 "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."-Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs: Jan/Feb 2002. "American Unrivaled contains the opinions of top thinkers on the critical question of how long America's unipolar power will last."-Joseph Nye, Harvard University "John Ikenberry has assembled a fascinating collection of essays that examine how the rest of the world deals with America's dominating position in the global balance of power. The most striking feature of this impressive volume is how little agreement there is among the different authors."-John J. Mearsheimer , University of Chicago

G. John Ikenberry is Peter F. Krogh Professor of Geopolitics and Global Justice at Georgetown University. Among his previous books are After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars and Reasons of State: Oil Politics and the Capacities of American Government, the latter from Cornell.

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.

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