Status and the Challenge of Rising Powers

Reviews / Votes

'This book is a worthy addition to the growing literature on how status concerns, especially combined with power transitions, shape international politics. By combining theory with historical case studies, Steven Ward contributes to our understanding of radical revisionism by showing how the psychological effects and domestic political repercussions of status immobility can lead to attempts by rising powers to overturn the existing international order. This study is a must-read for dealing with China and Russia today.' Deborah Welch Larson, University of California, Los Angeles 'In this auspicious intervention scholarship on the rise of great powers and the resilience of international orders, Steven Ward provides a novel and powerful way to think about the origins of radical revisionism in international politics - the sort of profound challenge that can end in devastating war. Status concerns figure importantly, but, crucially, Ward shows that the interaction between blocked status aspirations and domestic politics is the key to the puzzle of costly and potentially self-defeating behavior. Status and the Challenge of Rising Powers opens a new window on great global upheavals of the past - and on the question of how to avoid one in the near future.' William C. Wohlforth, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire 'Steven Ward has written an excellent guide to discern at what point reasonable requests for reform of the world order shift towards an outward rejection of that system.' Axel Dessein, Rising Powers Quarterly