The geopolitical foundations for U.S. strategy in a new U.S.–China bipolar system

Abstract

The unipolar era of U.S. hegemony in international politics has passed. It has been replaced by a new bipolar system, with the United States and China as the two powers. No other states are able to match the respective aggregate power of the United States and China. The return of bipolarity, however, will not lead to a new Cold War. Geopolitics shape the new superpower dynamic and international order differently than during the previous bipolar system. The geographical position of China as a rimland power compels the United States to develop a different balancing strategy against its current peer competitor than the containment strategy it wielded against the Soviet Union’s heartland position.