Muqtedar Khan, Jiwon Nam and Amara Galileo
The rise of China and the US response to it is probably the most important issue of our times from the perspective of global politics. In this collection of articles, we plan to make a modest contribution to the broad question of whether there will be competition or conflict between the existing hegemon and the rising challenger by looking at how they are dealing with each other in different issue areas and in different regions. We look at US-China relations with regards to leadership on issues of migration, climate change, investments and global order, in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The key contribution of this series is to look at critical issues and regions in the context of US-China dynamics. Special attention will be given to US grand strategy and the possibility of shared hegemony. Scholars such as Schweiss (2003) have advanced the idea of shared hegemony by US and Europe who are already allies. Extending that idea we ask can there be a shared hegemony rather than a bipolar contest between US and China? Can the US and China be geopolitical and economic competitors yet jointly take responsibility for maintaining a global order that benefits all and work together to address planetary challenges such as climate change?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has become a proxy war between Russia and the West. The former challenged Western-backed order by annexing parts of Ukraine and the latter defending it by arming and funding Ukraine. Russia continues to receive help from China which has ramped up its imports from Russia that keeps its economy afloat and allows it to fund its war efforts despite sanctions and decoupling by Western economies. Ukraine has become the battleground where the current order is being contested and China clearly is playing on both sides – it is doing little to defend the current order but it is also not doing anything directly through military means to undermine it.
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