Tim Dunne and Trine Flockhart (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265529
- eISBN:
- 9780191760334
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265529.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Liberal world order is seen by many as either a fading international order in response to declining American hegemony, or as a failing international order riddled with internal tensions and ...
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Liberal world order is seen by many as either a fading international order in response to declining American hegemony, or as a failing international order riddled with internal tensions and contradicting positions. Either way, it is assumed to be in crisis. This book does not reject this claim. Nor does it deny that liberalism contains many inconsistencies. Instead, it argues that much of the literature has been conditioned by a view that sees liberal order's crisis primarily as a crisis of authority and which does not look further back than the twentieth century. As a result liberalism was shorn of its historical origins and previous rich debates about similar tensions and contradiction to those of today's liberal order. The volume questions the nature of liberal order's crisis by positing that liberal order's continual renewal was achieved through crisis, and it challenges the way in which the debate about liberalism has been conducted within the International Relations academy. Against the theoreticians it holds the position that liberalism has suffered from being too closely tied to the quest for scientific authenticity, resulting in a theoretical perspective with little or no commitment to political values and political vision. By turning the classical liberalism of Kant, Paine, and Mill into neoliberalism, liberalism lost its critical and normative potential. Against the policymakers, the volume holds the position that the practices of liberal order are resilient and have proved durable despite liberal order's many crises and despite liberal order's inconsistencies and tensions.Less
Liberal world order is seen by many as either a fading international order in response to declining American hegemony, or as a failing international order riddled with internal tensions and contradicting positions. Either way, it is assumed to be in crisis. This book does not reject this claim. Nor does it deny that liberalism contains many inconsistencies. Instead, it argues that much of the literature has been conditioned by a view that sees liberal order's crisis primarily as a crisis of authority and which does not look further back than the twentieth century. As a result liberalism was shorn of its historical origins and previous rich debates about similar tensions and contradiction to those of today's liberal order. The volume questions the nature of liberal order's crisis by positing that liberal order's continual renewal was achieved through crisis, and it challenges the way in which the debate about liberalism has been conducted within the International Relations academy. Against the theoreticians it holds the position that liberalism has suffered from being too closely tied to the quest for scientific authenticity, resulting in a theoretical perspective with little or no commitment to political values and political vision. By turning the classical liberalism of Kant, Paine, and Mill into neoliberalism, liberalism lost its critical and normative potential. Against the policymakers, the volume holds the position that the practices of liberal order are resilient and have proved durable despite liberal order's many crises and despite liberal order's inconsistencies and tensions.
Norrin M. Ripsman and T. V. Paul
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195393903
- eISBN:
- 9780199776832
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393903.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter investigates global trends from 1991 to 2008. In particular, it inquires whether the macro-level propositions identified in Chapter 1 have been borne out. Therefore, it considers whether ...
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This chapter investigates global trends from 1991 to 2008. In particular, it inquires whether the macro-level propositions identified in Chapter 1 have been borne out. Therefore, it considers whether the level of interstate conflict has declined, whether global defense spending has decreased, whether the threat of global terrorism has begun to supplant interstate warfare on the global security agenda, and whether regional and global multilateral security institutions have begun to supplant states as the primary security providers, as many globalization scholars have predicted. It is shown that global trends are not very consistent with the globalization-kills-the-national-security-state hypothesis. Moreover, to the extent that certain features of the contemporary international system are consistent with the globalization school's predictions, it remains unclear whether globalization is the sole cause (or even the primary cause), or whether something potentially less enduring — such as American hegemony, the defense/deterrence dominance of contemporary military technology, or a lull after the all-encompassing global clash that was the Cold War — may have been more instrumental.Less
This chapter investigates global trends from 1991 to 2008. In particular, it inquires whether the macro-level propositions identified in Chapter 1 have been borne out. Therefore, it considers whether the level of interstate conflict has declined, whether global defense spending has decreased, whether the threat of global terrorism has begun to supplant interstate warfare on the global security agenda, and whether regional and global multilateral security institutions have begun to supplant states as the primary security providers, as many globalization scholars have predicted. It is shown that global trends are not very consistent with the globalization-kills-the-national-security-state hypothesis. Moreover, to the extent that certain features of the contemporary international system are consistent with the globalization school's predictions, it remains unclear whether globalization is the sole cause (or even the primary cause), or whether something potentially less enduring — such as American hegemony, the defense/deterrence dominance of contemporary military technology, or a lull after the all-encompassing global clash that was the Cold War — may have been more instrumental.
Richard F. Kuisel
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151816
- eISBN:
- 9781400839971
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151816.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter summarizes key themes and presents some thoughts about Franco-American relations. It also discusses the reasons why the French were more eager to confront America than other Europeans. ...
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This chapter summarizes key themes and presents some thoughts about Franco-American relations. It also discusses the reasons why the French were more eager to confront America than other Europeans. First, more than other Europeans, the French aspired to, and had the means to exercise, international leadership. If they conceded that they lagged behind the hyperpower, they were still persuaded that they were an elite nation with the power, both hard and soft, as well as the experience and self-confidence, to merit a commanding position in Europe and beyond. More keenly than others the French also distrusted American hegemony, found it unreliable and self-serving, and linked the United States with the invasive process of globalization. Second, American practices and values targeted signifiers of identity more closely in France than they did those of its neighbors.Less
This chapter summarizes key themes and presents some thoughts about Franco-American relations. It also discusses the reasons why the French were more eager to confront America than other Europeans. First, more than other Europeans, the French aspired to, and had the means to exercise, international leadership. If they conceded that they lagged behind the hyperpower, they were still persuaded that they were an elite nation with the power, both hard and soft, as well as the experience and self-confidence, to merit a commanding position in Europe and beyond. More keenly than others the French also distrusted American hegemony, found it unreliable and self-serving, and linked the United States with the invasive process of globalization. Second, American practices and values targeted signifiers of identity more closely in France than they did those of its neighbors.
Ji-Young Lee
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231179744
- eISBN:
- 9780231542173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231179744.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The concluding chapter begins by offering a succinct summary of the book’s overall arguments and elaborates how they contribute to the fields of international relations, Asian Studies, and social ...
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The concluding chapter begins by offering a succinct summary of the book’s overall arguments and elaborates how they contribute to the fields of international relations, Asian Studies, and social science more broadly. It then discusses the relevance of the book’s arguments for ongoing policy debates regarding the future of American hegemony with the rise of China. From a meta-theoretical point of view, I end the book with a caveat that one cannot predict the future with certainty.Less
The concluding chapter begins by offering a succinct summary of the book’s overall arguments and elaborates how they contribute to the fields of international relations, Asian Studies, and social science more broadly. It then discusses the relevance of the book’s arguments for ongoing policy debates regarding the future of American hegemony with the rise of China. From a meta-theoretical point of view, I end the book with a caveat that one cannot predict the future with certainty.
JOHN MASON HART
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223240
- eISBN:
- 9780520939295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223240.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter examines the revolution in Mexico in 1910. This revolution began as a call for a more participatory government and agrarian reform, but it quickly deepened into a broad-based cultural, ...
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This chapter examines the revolution in Mexico in 1910. This revolution began as a call for a more participatory government and agrarian reform, but it quickly deepened into a broad-based cultural, political, and nationalist rejection of the political elites in the nation's capital, the great estate owners, and the foreign capitalists—for the most part, Americans. The Mexican Revolution presented the first major political challenge to American hegemony in Latin America during the modern era and the sense of anti-Americanism intensified as the fighting among the Mexicans deepened and broadened. This chapters also discusses the rise of the orozquistas, the fate of settlers and colonists, and Venustiano Carranza's revolution.Less
This chapter examines the revolution in Mexico in 1910. This revolution began as a call for a more participatory government and agrarian reform, but it quickly deepened into a broad-based cultural, political, and nationalist rejection of the political elites in the nation's capital, the great estate owners, and the foreign capitalists—for the most part, Americans. The Mexican Revolution presented the first major political challenge to American hegemony in Latin America during the modern era and the sense of anti-Americanism intensified as the fighting among the Mexicans deepened and broadened. This chapters also discusses the rise of the orozquistas, the fate of settlers and colonists, and Venustiano Carranza's revolution.
Stewart Patrick
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199666430
- eISBN:
- 9780191745607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199666430.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines the transformation of world politics in the first two post-Cold War decades, as forces of globalization altered the security, political, economic, and normative contexts in ...
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This chapter examines the transformation of world politics in the first two post-Cold War decades, as forces of globalization altered the security, political, economic, and normative contexts in which sovereign states operate. The most profound structural changes over these twenty years included the rise and decline of America’s “unipolar moment”, a dramatic shift of power to the developing world, the declining incidence of war (both intra- and interstate), the growing strategic salience of transnational threats, the emergence of failed states as a major security concern, the growing global influence of regional organizations, and a sharpening debate over norms of sovereignty and non-intervention. To cope with this daunting global agenda, states increasingly turned not only to formal treaty-based international organizations but to more flexible arrangements of collective action.Less
This chapter examines the transformation of world politics in the first two post-Cold War decades, as forces of globalization altered the security, political, economic, and normative contexts in which sovereign states operate. The most profound structural changes over these twenty years included the rise and decline of America’s “unipolar moment”, a dramatic shift of power to the developing world, the declining incidence of war (both intra- and interstate), the growing strategic salience of transnational threats, the emergence of failed states as a major security concern, the growing global influence of regional organizations, and a sharpening debate over norms of sovereignty and non-intervention. To cope with this daunting global agenda, states increasingly turned not only to formal treaty-based international organizations but to more flexible arrangements of collective action.
Eiko Kosasa
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824830151
- eISBN:
- 9780824869243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824830151.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter provides an overview of the Americanization movement and its efforts to transform the Japanese into patriotic American citizens. It examines this maintenance of American hegemony in ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the Americanization movement and its efforts to transform the Japanese into patriotic American citizens. It examines this maintenance of American hegemony in Hawai‘i through a dialectic of force and consent visible in family portraits of Japanese settlers taken by Usaku Teragawachi in the 1920s and 1930s. Analyzing the broader meaning of these photographs as they became a part of Japanese settler discourse represented in the 1985 publication Kanyaku Imin: A Hundred Years of Japanese Life in Hawai‘i, the chapter challenges that master narrative of American immigration by situating the “successes” of the Japanese settler community within a colonial system.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the Americanization movement and its efforts to transform the Japanese into patriotic American citizens. It examines this maintenance of American hegemony in Hawai‘i through a dialectic of force and consent visible in family portraits of Japanese settlers taken by Usaku Teragawachi in the 1920s and 1930s. Analyzing the broader meaning of these photographs as they became a part of Japanese settler discourse represented in the 1985 publication Kanyaku Imin: A Hundred Years of Japanese Life in Hawai‘i, the chapter challenges that master narrative of American immigration by situating the “successes” of the Japanese settler community within a colonial system.
Inderjeet Parmar
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231146296
- eISBN:
- 9780231517935
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231146296.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book reveals the complex interrelations, shared mindsets and collaborative efforts of influential public and private organizations in the building of American hegemony. It focuses on the ...
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This book reveals the complex interrelations, shared mindsets and collaborative efforts of influential public and private organizations in the building of American hegemony. It focuses on the involvement of the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations in U.S. foreign affairs, and traces the transformation of America from an “isolationist” nation into the world's only superpower, all in the name of benevolent stewardship. The book begins in the 1920s with the establishment of these foundations and their system of top-down, elitist, scientific giving, which focused more on managing social, political, and economic change than on solving modern society's structural problems. It recounts how the American intellectuals, academics and policy makers affiliated with these organizations institutionalized such elitism, which then bled into the machinery of U.S. foreign policy and became regarded as the essence of modernity. The book argues that America hoped to replace Britain in the role of global hegemon and created the necessary political, ideological, military, and institutional capacity to do so, yet, it shows that, far from being objective, the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations often advanced U.S. interests at the expense of other nations. It incorporates case studies of American philanthropy in Nigeria, Chile, and Indonesia, and assesses the knowledge networks underwriting American dominance in the twentieth century.Less
This book reveals the complex interrelations, shared mindsets and collaborative efforts of influential public and private organizations in the building of American hegemony. It focuses on the involvement of the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations in U.S. foreign affairs, and traces the transformation of America from an “isolationist” nation into the world's only superpower, all in the name of benevolent stewardship. The book begins in the 1920s with the establishment of these foundations and their system of top-down, elitist, scientific giving, which focused more on managing social, political, and economic change than on solving modern society's structural problems. It recounts how the American intellectuals, academics and policy makers affiliated with these organizations institutionalized such elitism, which then bled into the machinery of U.S. foreign policy and became regarded as the essence of modernity. The book argues that America hoped to replace Britain in the role of global hegemon and created the necessary political, ideological, military, and institutional capacity to do so, yet, it shows that, far from being objective, the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations often advanced U.S. interests at the expense of other nations. It incorporates case studies of American philanthropy in Nigeria, Chile, and Indonesia, and assesses the knowledge networks underwriting American dominance in the twentieth century.
Lee Bebout
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670864
- eISBN:
- 9781452946917
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670864.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This book explores how myth and history impacted the social struggle of the Chicano movement and the postmovement years. Drawing on archival materials and political speeches as well as music and ...
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This book explores how myth and history impacted the social struggle of the Chicano movement and the postmovement years. Drawing on archival materials and political speeches as well as music and protest poetry, the text scrutinizes the ideas that emerged from the effort to organize and legitimize the Chicano movement’s aims. Examining the deployment of the Aztec eagle by the United Farm Workers union, the poem Yo Soy Joaquín, the document El Plan de Santa Barbara, and icons like La Malinche and La Virgen de Guadalupe, the book reveals the centrality of culture to the Chicano movement. The active implementation of cultural narrative was strategically significant in several ways. First, it allowed disparate movement participants to imagine themselves as part of a national, and nationalist, community of resistance. Second, Chicano use of these narratives contested the images that fostered Anglo-American hegemony.Less
This book explores how myth and history impacted the social struggle of the Chicano movement and the postmovement years. Drawing on archival materials and political speeches as well as music and protest poetry, the text scrutinizes the ideas that emerged from the effort to organize and legitimize the Chicano movement’s aims. Examining the deployment of the Aztec eagle by the United Farm Workers union, the poem Yo Soy Joaquín, the document El Plan de Santa Barbara, and icons like La Malinche and La Virgen de Guadalupe, the book reveals the centrality of culture to the Chicano movement. The active implementation of cultural narrative was strategically significant in several ways. First, it allowed disparate movement participants to imagine themselves as part of a national, and nationalist, community of resistance. Second, Chicano use of these narratives contested the images that fostered Anglo-American hegemony.
Salvatore Babones
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447336808
- eISBN:
- 9781447336907
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447336808.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
For most of its history, China was at the center of an East Asian interstate system, the Chinese tianxia. The Chinese word for China, Zhongguo, even means "central state" (or "middle kingdom"). By ...
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For most of its history, China was at the center of an East Asian interstate system, the Chinese tianxia. The Chinese word for China, Zhongguo, even means "central state" (or "middle kingdom"). By contrast, the modern interstate system is usually understood as an anarchic system of competing states. In reality, the 21st century interstate system is a central state system like the Ming Dynasty Chinese tianxia, but centered on the United States, not on China. The American-centered system began to form much earlier than is usually understood, and was clearly described by many intellectuals in the aftermath of World War One. It is now in its prime, not its decline. Like the historical Chinese tianxia, the current American Tianxia is strongly hierarchical, but unlike the Chinese tianxia, it is not relational. This calls into question the key conceit of Westphalian sovereignty, the sovereign equality of states. But it is also responsible for the relatively peaceful conduct of international relations under the American Tianxia.Less
For most of its history, China was at the center of an East Asian interstate system, the Chinese tianxia. The Chinese word for China, Zhongguo, even means "central state" (or "middle kingdom"). By contrast, the modern interstate system is usually understood as an anarchic system of competing states. In reality, the 21st century interstate system is a central state system like the Ming Dynasty Chinese tianxia, but centered on the United States, not on China. The American-centered system began to form much earlier than is usually understood, and was clearly described by many intellectuals in the aftermath of World War One. It is now in its prime, not its decline. Like the historical Chinese tianxia, the current American Tianxia is strongly hierarchical, but unlike the Chinese tianxia, it is not relational. This calls into question the key conceit of Westphalian sovereignty, the sovereign equality of states. But it is also responsible for the relatively peaceful conduct of international relations under the American Tianxia.
Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300207125
- eISBN:
- 9780300231458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300207125.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The rise of the Islamist movement, a phenomenon that Islamists call the Awakening, has attracted the attention of academics of various disciplines and of diverse opinions and outlooks. They have ...
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The rise of the Islamist movement, a phenomenon that Islamists call the Awakening, has attracted the attention of academics of various disciplines and of diverse opinions and outlooks. They have taken many different approaches and have come up with contradictory results. Interpreting the phenomenon has sometimes been mistaken for trying to justify it. Since it would be difficult to give an exhaustive account here of the broad outlines of the research that has been done, it must suffice to indicate the main trends and attitudes. This introductory chapter provides an overview of the following three chapters in this volume, which deal with the approach of the state's official religious establishment; the approach that treats the Islamist phenomenon as the cultural manifestation of a new reality that rejects subservience and Euro-American hegemony; and presenting problematic aspects of reading the religious texts themselves.Less
The rise of the Islamist movement, a phenomenon that Islamists call the Awakening, has attracted the attention of academics of various disciplines and of diverse opinions and outlooks. They have taken many different approaches and have come up with contradictory results. Interpreting the phenomenon has sometimes been mistaken for trying to justify it. Since it would be difficult to give an exhaustive account here of the broad outlines of the research that has been done, it must suffice to indicate the main trends and attitudes. This introductory chapter provides an overview of the following three chapters in this volume, which deal with the approach of the state's official religious establishment; the approach that treats the Islamist phenomenon as the cultural manifestation of a new reality that rejects subservience and Euro-American hegemony; and presenting problematic aspects of reading the religious texts themselves.
Antonio Giustozzi
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190862985
- eISBN:
- 9780190943080
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190862985.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Antonio Giustozzi’s chapter charts out the reactionary policies of Gulf monarchies to the evolving regional politics in Afghanistan and to changing perceptions of American hegemony post 2003. It ...
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Antonio Giustozzi’s chapter charts out the reactionary policies of Gulf monarchies to the evolving regional politics in Afghanistan and to changing perceptions of American hegemony post 2003. It traces the post-9/11 funding of the Afghan Taliban sourcing from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The competition between Iran and these Sunni funders in buying hegemony in the region is explored as also the competitive dynamics amongst the Sunni funders themselves, particularly the Saudis and Qataris. The role of Pakistan in lobbying for the involvement of the Gulf powers in nurturing the Afghan Taliban while simultaneously pursuing the ‘peace process’ is equally scrutinized. Finally, the complications caused by Pakistan’s conciliatory approach towards the Iranian presence along with the Taliban and a subsequent fallout between the Gulf and Pakistani agendas are explained.Less
Antonio Giustozzi’s chapter charts out the reactionary policies of Gulf monarchies to the evolving regional politics in Afghanistan and to changing perceptions of American hegemony post 2003. It traces the post-9/11 funding of the Afghan Taliban sourcing from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The competition between Iran and these Sunni funders in buying hegemony in the region is explored as also the competitive dynamics amongst the Sunni funders themselves, particularly the Saudis and Qataris. The role of Pakistan in lobbying for the involvement of the Gulf powers in nurturing the Afghan Taliban while simultaneously pursuing the ‘peace process’ is equally scrutinized. Finally, the complications caused by Pakistan’s conciliatory approach towards the Iranian presence along with the Taliban and a subsequent fallout between the Gulf and Pakistani agendas are explained.
Evan Hillebrand and Stacy Closson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028899
- eISBN:
- 9780262328722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028899.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This sixth scenario is marked by high energy prices, weak growth, and global harmony. The United States and the European Union have only weak recoveries from the travails of 2008-2013, and China is ...
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This sixth scenario is marked by high energy prices, weak growth, and global harmony. The United States and the European Union have only weak recoveries from the travails of 2008-2013, and China is unable to transition to a sustainable high growth path. Energy production of fossil fuels runs into geological and political barriers, and energy prices rise despite weak economic growth. There is a consensus, at least among OECD countries, that the fossil-fuel driven global economy is environmentally unsustainable. Stringent new environmental regulations and huge new taxpayer-supplied funds spur new research, innovation, and a large-scale switch away from coal and oil. There is a significant decrease in carbon emissions helped along by new international agreements on efficiency standards and technology adaptation, as well as prolonged slow growth. Countries that wish to catch up to the OECD have no choice but to adapt to this new eco world given high energy prices and weak overall growth. In the case of China, civic activism and a stolid leadership result in the demise of the Communist Party rule. Aside from environmental cooperation, states are focused inward, dealing with disruptive citizens unhappy with slow growth. America remains the sole superpower.Less
This sixth scenario is marked by high energy prices, weak growth, and global harmony. The United States and the European Union have only weak recoveries from the travails of 2008-2013, and China is unable to transition to a sustainable high growth path. Energy production of fossil fuels runs into geological and political barriers, and energy prices rise despite weak economic growth. There is a consensus, at least among OECD countries, that the fossil-fuel driven global economy is environmentally unsustainable. Stringent new environmental regulations and huge new taxpayer-supplied funds spur new research, innovation, and a large-scale switch away from coal and oil. There is a significant decrease in carbon emissions helped along by new international agreements on efficiency standards and technology adaptation, as well as prolonged slow growth. Countries that wish to catch up to the OECD have no choice but to adapt to this new eco world given high energy prices and weak overall growth. In the case of China, civic activism and a stolid leadership result in the demise of the Communist Party rule. Aside from environmental cooperation, states are focused inward, dealing with disruptive citizens unhappy with slow growth. America remains the sole superpower.
