Interdependent hegemony: China’s rise under the emerging new world order

Abstract

To better assess the global impact of the ascendance of emerging powers brought about by globalization, this paper attempts to provide a conceptual framework of “interdependent hegemony,” which can serve as an alternative conceptual tool for analyzing the dynamics between the role of emerging powers as a counter-hegemonic, socio-political force and the hegemonic resilience of the existing international order. The paper also regards the capitalist world economy as a dynamic system which is under constant changes over time, whereas certain basic features of the system remain in place. It is argued that despite the rise of emerging powers, the functioning of the world economy will always generate inequalities with positional changes in the stratification of the core-semiperiphery-periphery structure. In this context, the rise of China as both a recipient and provider of global production and investment is fundamentally a positive driving force behind the evolution of the world system.