POLS 067. Great Power Rivalry in the 21st Century

Since the end of the great rivalry that marked the bipolar Cold War, commentators have debated whether we live in a unipolar or multipolar world. Celebrations, condemnations, as well as obituaries of U.S. hegemony have repeatedly been written. At the same time, nuclear weapons and the economic interdependence have radically reduced the prospects for war between great powers. Does the U.S.A. stand as the sole great power? Is the European Union simply an enormous market with a soft spot for multilateralism, or does the worldviews it puts forward and the international relations it fosters rival the U.S. way? To what extent does the Chinese agenda at multilateral institutions conflict with that of the U.S.A.'s and the E.U.'s? In answering these questions and others, some of the issues that the course addresses are: changing meanings of "great power" and "rivalry"; historical overview of rivalry; trade disputes between the U.S.A., E.U., and China at the World Trade Organization; relations between these three powers at other international institutions, particularly the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund; foreign aid policies of the U.S.A., the E.U., and China; the implications of the rise of Brazil, Russia, and India for world politics.
Prerequisite: POLS 004.
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Political Science
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/political-science

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