Global Politics in a Multipolar Age: The Choice for Small States
Over the next 20 years, the international order is likely to be significantly reshaped as U.S. global primacy is increasingly challenged by China’s rising geopolitical influence. This is generating anxiety among smaller states that will have to consider carefully how best to navigate a multipolar world and the challenges that it brings. In their paper for the
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Benjamin Ho and Wu Wan Xin consider the likelihood that a new multipolar world will generate uncertainty about the rules of political order. On the other hand, a multipolar world order will proffer opportunities for small states. The authors argue that the idea that only major powers have ultimate agency in charting the global future, at best oversimplifies the complex reality of global life; and, at worst, forging a self-fulfilling prophecy in which small states abdicate their political agency and become vassals of bigger states.
https://www.rsis.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IP21011-Ho-Wu-masthead-final.pdf
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