Undermining American Hegemony
Goods Substitution in World Politics

Rather than direct confrontation, this book argues that competition over the provision and consumption of global public and private goods is shaping the decline of the liberal international order.

Morten Skumsrud Andersen (Edited by), Alexander Cooley (Edited by), Daniel H. Nexon (Edited by)

9781108844970, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 June 2021

270 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.506 kg

'This volume offers a fascinating analysis of how countries such as China and Russia are seeking to erode US-led liberal international order by contesting the United States' dominant role in providing global public goods in the economic, security and normative realm. Shedding light on the subject from several different angles, the authors succeed in deepening the reader's understanding of how political orders are maintained by the hegemon and challenged by other powers. The book thus makes a highly relevant contribution to the ongoing debate about the provision of international goods and the future of global order, a topic that has only gained importance in the context of the covid-19 pandemic.' Oliver Della Costa Stuenkel, Associate Professor, School of International Relations, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV)

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.

Preface
List of abbreviations
1. Goods substitution and the logics of international order transformation Daniel H. Nexon, Alexander Cooley and Morten Skumsrud Andersen
2. Goods substitution and counter-hegemonic strategies Alexander Cooley and Daniel H. Nexon
3. International rankings as normative goods: hegemony and the quest for social status Bahar Rumelili and Ann Towns
4. China and the Asian infrastructure investment bank: undermining hegemony through goods substitution? Julia Bader
5. The silk road to goods substitution: central Asia and the rise of new post-western international orders Alexander Cooley
6. Goods substitution in the USA's back yard: Colombia's diversification strategies under conditions of hierarchy Morten Skumsrud Andersen
7. Goods substitution at high latitude: undermining hegemony from below in the north Atlantic Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Benjamin De Carvalho and Halvard Leira
8. Reflections on the volume Ole Jacob Sending and Iver B. Neumann
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], International relations [JPS]