PODCAST: How to Become a Hegemon

The term geopolitics seems to be is everywhere these days. In the broadest sense, it refers to the increased competition – or even rivalry – between great powers. But what is the dynamics that drives this rivalry? What strategies are being used, and with what consequences? To explore these questions, professor Ole Jacob Sending from NUPI sits down with Daniel Nexon, professor at Georgetown University.

Dr. Nexon has worked on different dimensions of great power politics for a long time. He authored an award-winning book about a decade ago on power politics in early modern Europe, and he has published a string of articles in top-ranked journals about US foreign policy and the conditions for US hegemony. Together with Alexander Cooley he recently published a book titled Exit from Hegemony that guide to why the US-led order is fundamentally transforming.

In The World Stage he talks about how international political leadership – or hegemony – is established and undone. Dr. Nexon argues that hegemony is established through the supply of (public) goods – such as security – for other states.

This is what the US has been doing for decades, but now China is trying to replace the US, providing alternative goods and also seeking to reduce the value of what the US has to offer.

This episode of The World Stage is a part of the Geopolitics Center, led by NUPI.