National perspectives on a multipolar order: Interrogating the global power transition

The global distribution of power is changing. But how should we make sense of this moment of transition?

With the rise of new powers and the decline of seemingly unchallenged US dominance in world politics, a conventional wisdom is gaining ground that a new multipolar order is taking shape. Yet multipolarity – an order with multiple centres of power – is variously used as a description of the current distribution of power, of the likely shape of a future global order, or even as a prescripti...