The world without hegemony
The world without hegemony
What Southeast Asian history tells us about a multipolar order | Aeon Essays
As Pax Americana ends, a multipolar order is emerging. The history of Southeast Asia holds lessons for what’s to come
As Pax Americana ends, a multipolar order is emerging. The history of Southeast Asia holds lessons for what’s to come.
The liberal international order or Pax Americana, the world order built by the United States after the Second World War, is coming to an end. Not surprisingly, this has led to fears of disorder and chaos and, even worse, impending Chinese hegemony or Pax Sinica. Importantly, this mode of thinking that envisages the necessity of a dominant or hegemonic power underwriting global stability was developed by 20th-century US scholars of international relations, and is known as the hegemonic stability theory (HST).