It has been thousands of years since the human beings inhabited the world. The clans and tribes were basic identities that used to discern the people from each other and broadly they made civilizations and then came the concept of states. The most modern states known to the history are Greek City States. The thumb rule of governing the civilizations and states has been the power to exert upon masses and enemies. The Athens and Spartans had fought for years in their urge of dominance and influence the other. The motive of this urge was not more than the desire of ruling the majority masses. The balance of power among states used to shift in favor of other time to time due to organic features of nature. In this transition of power, clash is imminent.
The power transition is a phenomenon that defines there are always two forces in global politics e.g. a state satisfied with its power and the other is dissatisfied which tends to break the rules and replace the former. In ancient history, be it Athens or Sparta, or in modern history whether they are colonial powers like the Britain, Spain, France, Portugal, Japan and industrial power Germany. They fought and strove for power and yes, the world witnessed the transition of power in each other’s favor time to time ending at the hands of the Britain. Graham Alison evaluated around 16 case studies and concluded only few incidents have avoided wars while the rest had ended in all out war. At the end of WW II, Europe had left with nothing and all their industrial power was diminished due to war when the USA step in the new world order. The former super powers were made subservient to next powerful state, the USA. The US formed new world order, a structure under the umbrella of United Nations what Woodrow Wilson could not do after WW I. All the victors of WW II formed Security Council to exercise their wielded power to the rest of the world. The new economic model based on capitalism was introduced but of course there was dissatisfied state, the USSR but unfortunately became victim to capitalism in 1979 with the end of Afghan War. The USA took lead of the world order in uni polar world as sole super power. Again, history is set to repeat itself when China appears as dissatisfied with the existing world order and came in direct competition with the US. This time, power has different dynamics like it is more economic prone than military as had been the practice in past. The scholars hope Graham Alison would be proved wrong this time because the US and China might not end with military conflict but yes they do have another front to compete, that is economic. Why a state is dissatisfied by the world order? It is because she thinks this is not what she deserve and some rules are to be changed based on her custom norms and values. That is why she wants the power to change the rules and again satisfy herself. Let’s see how new world order emerges but this is for sure, the world is no more uni polar.
