America Unrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power

This book is a collection of nine essays which explore why a counterbalancing reaction against the United States has not yet taken place, despite the widening power gulf between the USA and other major countries. Although the Soviet threat has been eliminated, one cannot discern a significant decline in alliance solidarity between the United States and its European or Asian partners. Both NATO and the US-Japan alliance have reaffirmed and deepened their ties, and wider realms of political and economic cooperation and multilateral relations have not declined in serious ways. Trade and investment have expanded across the Atlantic and Pacific, and an increasingly dense web of intergovernmental and transnational relations exist. Furthermore, American power is without historical precedent and dominates the world system. No other nation has enjoyed such formidable advantages in military, economic, technological, cultural, and political capabilities. How stable is this unipolar American order? Will the balance of power reemerge as other great powers rise up to challenge American preeminence? America Unrivaled concludes that nuclear weapons, the spread of capitalism and democracy, and novel features of American hegemony render unlikely the automatic return to a traditional balance-of-power order.