Leverage and Cooperation in the US World Order
The Shrewd Sheriff

Explores how the US maintains a consensual world order in partner nations with flexible and regular channels of leadership turnover.

Giacomo Chiozza (Author)

9781009355094, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 March 2025

278 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.406 kg

'This book offers a compelling framework for understanding how the US (partially) managed the paradox of enforcing a consensual order, revealing the deep interconnection between leadership ambition and global strategic management.' Andrea Ruggeri, Journal of Peace Research

Since the end of World War II, the United States has maintained a unique system of partnerships and alliances, known as the US world order. Within this order, it has sought both compliance from, and consensus with, its partners. Sometimes it has achieved both, sometimes one but not the other, and sometimes neither. What accounts for this variation in hegemonic leadership? Giacomo Chiozza suggests that the answer depends on the domestic political institutions that structure US relations with the incumbent leaders in the partner nations. Domestic political institutions that foster political successors and allow for regular and flexible channels of leadership turnover make it easier for the US to sustain friendly relations. However, unexpectedly, institutions that allow for regular and flexible channels of leadership turnover also create domestic political incentives that foster the attainment of better governance and more respect of human rights.

1. Introduction: the puzzle of US hegemonic leadership
2. The United States as a shrewd sheriff
3. Empirical tests for the shrewd sheriff
4. The shrewd sheriff on the beat
5. The shrewd sheriff and its core partners
6. The shrewd sheriff and counterinsurgency partners
7. New challenges for the shrewd sheriff
8. Epilogue: the badge of the sheriff.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]