Understanding Global Power Shifts and Democratic Trends Study Guide
This guide explores the evolving geopolitical landscape, focusing on the U.S.-China rivalry, the challenges to liberal democracy, and the rise of autocratic models. It covers economic comparisons (GDP vs. PPP), military capabilities, and the internal democratic struggles within nations.
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Global Power Dynamics and International Order
Replicating Cold War Successes and New Challenges
Analysis of instruments of deterrence, democracy promotion, international cooperation, and the U.S.-China rivalry within a multipolar system.
- Instruments of deterrence
- Democracy promotion
- International cooperation
- American soft power
- Hard power
- NATO and bilateral treaties
- Strategic ambiguity
- Anti-access/are denial (A2/AD) capabilities
- Economic interdependence
- U.S.-China rivalry
- American isolationism
- Domestic polarization
- Multipolar system
Navigating 21st Century Geopolitics: Deterrence, Alliances, and the U.S.-China Rivalry
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U.S.-China Competition and Democratic Decline
Analysis of U.S.-China competition, Chinese economic and military power, and the global waning of democracy and rise of autocracy.
- U.S.-China competition
- Chinese economic power
- Purchasing power parity
- Conventional military power
- Naval power
- Belt and Road Initiative
- Democratic decline
- American democracy promotion
- Putinism
- Xi Jinping Thought
- Chinese economic development model
- Ideological tensions
U.S.-China Competition and the Global Decline of Democracy
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Military Power and International Relations
This topic examines military power, economic power, soft power, and hard power within the context of global democratic recession and potential new Cold War dynamics between democratic and autocratic states.
- Military power
- Realist definition of power
- Coercion
- Economic power
- Power and perception
- Hard power
- Soft power
- Democratic recession
- Bipolar international system
- Autocratic ideas
- Democratic ideas
- International order
- U.S.-Russian relations
- Balance of power
U.S. and USSR Confrontation History
The history of confrontation with the USSR, the end of the Cold War, and the return to confrontation.
- Bolshevik Revolution
- Lend-Lease program
- Truman Doctrine
- Korean War
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Vietnam War
- Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
- Perestroika
- Glasnost
- Democratization
- Vladimir Putin
- NATO expansion
- Invasion of Ukraine
The Liberal International Order and Its Decline
The liberal international order is anchored by rules, norms, laws, and institutions, but faces decline driven by the rise of new great powers and eroding American enthusiasm.
- Liberal international order
- Washington Consensus
- Market-oriented policies
- Great powers
- Isolationism
- Zero-sum terms
- Russian Global (Dis)Order
- Spheres of influence
- Revisionist great power
Global Power Dynamics and US Foreign Policy
An analysis of China and Russia as global actors, the role of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and American strategic interests and historical mistakes.
- Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
- China as a global leader
- Liberal international order
- US economic model
- Soviet military power
- Nuclear weapons
- Military gap
- Russian power and the invasion of Ukraine
- Imperial overreach
- Containment strategy
- American core interests
- Freedom of navigation
- Aiding dictators
Periods of U.S.-China Relations
A history of U.S.-China relations spanning the century of humiliation, the collapse of imperial rule, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the return to confrontation.
- Century of humiliation
- First Opium War
- Second Opium War
- Collapse of imperial rule
- KMT party
- Chinese Communist Party
- Long March
- People’s Republic of China
- Korean War
- Great Leap Forward
- Deng Xiaoping reforms
- Xi Jinping
- Social credit system
- Mass detention
The Decline of American Hegemony
The end of American hegemony involves the decline of U.S. relative power, economic dominance, and military power compared to the rise of Russia and China.
- American hegemony
- Unipolar international system
- Soft power
- Hard power
- U.S. military power decline
- U.S. economic dominance
- Russian great power status
- Russian conventional military power
- Russian nuclear power
- Liberal international order
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