The rise of China (and India) as a challenge to the West

Scientific Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: South Asia grade: 17 Dresden Technical University (Zentrum für Internationale Studieun) course: Great Powers in International Relations language: English abstract: In his controversially discussed book The Clash of Civilizations Samuel P. Huntington draws a future scenario in which China and the United States of America start a disastrous escalating war. He locates the centre of this world war in the Asian region. Twenty years after the Cold War it seems to most of us that the relations between the United States Russia China and India to mention the major powers in East Asia are complex but quite stable. But does today's stability ensure tomorrow's peace? Or may a so called multipolar order not be dangerous for the world as a whole but for the predictions of a theory like realism? And how can we characterize the international system: multipolar unipolar uni-multipolar?The first question I want to investigate in this context is if war among the new and old great powers is obsolete or not? The second question is related to the first one: What role do the domestic political regimes and institutions play in the rise and perception of these new great powers?