Systemic Transitional Fluidity

This chapter traces the trajectory along which the international system became unipolar and how the post-Cold War ‘sole superpower’ sought to rationalise and perpetuate its hegemonic status. It introduces the theoretical frameworks applied in the study and reviews the literature on the erosion of primacy, the processes of power-shift and power-diffusion, and a progressive deepening of Sino-US mutual distrust as the two powers changed from tacit allies to ‘near-peer-rivals’. Chinese perspectives on changing measures of ‘comprehensive national power’ defining competitive positions of major actors within the system, and Beijing’s emphasis on historical experience as a fountainhead of wisdom for managing China’s modern challenges offer insights into evolving Chinese thinking. Dramatic economic turbulence and its strategic consequences for US primacy and Sino-US relations provide the backdrop against which Barack Obama assumed office.