BOOK PROJECT SUMMARY

When do the world’s most powerful countries cooperate? Today’s world faces daunting transnational challenges that might naturally push major powers to band together. But instead of spurring countries like the United States and China to collaborate, contemporary global crises are driving them apart. The Rise and Fall of Major Power Cooperation suggests that a struggle for regime security underpins the rise and fall of cooperation in the modern era. Major powers with shared fates commonly forgo cooperation when actions intended to bolster one’s governance rules, organizations, and ideas are perceived as undermining anther’s. From waves of political revolution during the twentieth century to global pandemics and transformative technologies today, global crises tempt major powers to remake regimes, stoking mutual fear that a new and dangerous world order is on the horizon. Tragically, major powers cooperate less than they otherwise might, particularly in the face of global challenges when cooperation is needed most.

DRAFT CHAPTER LIST

  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 - A Theory of Major Power Cooperation
  • Chapter 2 - Major Power Cooperation in the Modern Era
  • Chapter 3 - Political Crises and Major Power Cooperation
  • Chapter 4 - Humanity's Allegiance: Regime Building and the Cold War
  • Chapter 5 - Revolutionary Horizons: Decolonization and the Long Cold War 
  • Chapter 6 - Sands of the Ogaden: Africa, Afghanistan, and Détente
  • Chapter 7 - Kabul Farewell: Regime Building and the Cold War's End
  • Chapter 8 - Freedom's Moment: China's Exile from a New World Order
  • Chapter 9 - The Proposal: Markets, Taiwan, and Cooperation Reimagined
  • Chapter 10 - Reborn Red: Globalization's Discontents and China
  • Chapter 11 - Ending Engagement: Regimes and a New Western Consensus
  • Chapter 12 - Empty Fortress: Regime Building and the Fragile Détente
  • Conclusion

DATA (IN PROGRESS)

​Major Power Cooperation Dataset, 1945 to 2023
​
​PRC Elite Ideology Dataset

ARCHIVAL & INTERVIEW RESEARCH

China 
  • Interviews, Beijing and other locations | Spring 2024 & Winter 2024

United States
  • ​George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, College Station | Winter 2021
  • Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley | Winter 2022
  • Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford | Summer 2023, Fall 2024
  • Interviews | Ongoing

​United Kingdom
  • The National Archives, London | Winter 2023, Summer 2024 & Spring 2025

France
  • Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes | Summer 2024
  • Centre des Archives diplomatiques de La Courneuve | Summer 2024​



Image:  Xinhua Gate of Zhongnanhai, Beijing