Undermining American Hegemony

Advancing a new approach to the study of international order this book highlights the stakes disguised by traditional theoretical languages of power transitions and hegemonic wars. Rather than direct challenges to US military power the most consequential undermining of hegemony is routine bottom-up processes of international goods substitution: a slow hollowing out of the existing order through competition to seek or offer alternative sources for economic military or social goods. Studying how actors gain access to alternative suppliers of these public goods this volume shows how states consequently move away from the liberal international order. Examining unfamiliar but crucial cases it takes the reader on a journey from local Faroese politics to Russian election observers in Central Asia to South American drug lords. Broadening the debate about the role of public goods in international politics this book offers a new perspective of one of the key issues of our time.