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| '''Polarity in international relations''' is any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. It describes the nature of the international system at any given period of time. One generally distinguishes four types of systems: '''unipolarity''', '''bipolarity''', '''tripolarity''', and '''multipolarity''' for four or more centers of power. The type of system is completely dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or internationally.
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| It is widely believed amongst theorists in international relations that the post-Cold War international system is unipolar: The United States’ defense spending is “close to half of global military expenditures; a blue-water navy superior to all others combined; a chance at a splendid nuclear first strike over its erstwhile foe, Russia; a defense research and development budget that is 80 percent of the total defense expenditures of its most obvious future competitor, China; and unmatched global power-projection capabilities.”<ref name="Monteiro Polarity">{{cite journal|last=Monteiro|first=Nuno|title=Polarity and Power: U.S. Hegemony and China's Challenge|journal=International Security|year=2011/2012|month=Winter|volume= 36|issue= 3|pages=pp. 9–40, p. 9|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00064|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/ISEC_a_00064}}</ref>
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| ==Unipolarity==
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| [[File:North Atlantic Treaty Organization (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|right|[[NATO]] and countries with which it is supposed to be at peace account for over 70% of [[List of countries by military expenditures|global military expenditure]],<ref name="sipri1">{{cite web|url=http://milexdata.sipri.org/ |title=The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database |publisher=Milexdata.sipri.org |date= |accessdate=2010-08-22}}</ref> with the [[United States]] alone accounting for 43% of global military expenditure<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/resultoutput/15majorspenders |title=The 15 countries with the highest military expenditure in 2009 |date= |accessdate=2010-08-22}}</ref> in 2009 and more than the next 17 combined in 2010<ref>[http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/06/military-spending ''Economist''] .</ref> with [[NATO]] then taking about half of the global $1.6 trillion.<ref>[http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS World Bank]</ref>]]
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| Unipolarity in international politics is a distribution of power in which one state exercises most of the cultural, economic, and military influence.
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| Nuno P. Monteiro, assistant professor of political science at [[Yale University]], argues that three features are endemic to unipolar systems:<ref name="Monteiro Polarity">{{cite journal|last=Monteiro|first=Nuno|title=Polarity and Power: U.S. Hegemony and China's Challenge|journal=International Security|year=2011/2012|month=Winter|volume= 36|issue= 3|pages=pp. 9–40, p. 13|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00064|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/ISEC_a_00064}}</ref>
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| * Unipolarity is an interstate system and not an empire. Monteiro cites [[Robert Jervis]] of [[Columbia University]] to support his claim, who argues that “unipolarity implies the existence of many juridically equal non-states, something that an empire denies.”<ref name="Jervis unipolar">{{cite journal|last=Jervis|first=Robert|title=Unipolarity: A Structural Perspective|journal=World Politics|date=January 2009|volume= 61|issue= 1|pages=pp.188–231, p. 190|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/wp/summary/v061/61.1.jervis.html|accessdate=13 November 2012}}</ref> Monteiro illustrates this point further through Daniel Nexon and Thomas Wright, who state that “in empires, inter-societal divide-and-rule practices replace interstate balance-of-power dynamics.”<ref name="Nexon Wright polarity">{{cite journal|last=Nexon|first=Daniel and Thomas Wright|title=What's at Stake in the American Empire Debate|journal=American Political Science Review|date=May 2007|volume= 101|issue= 2|pages=pp. 253–271, p. 253|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1028252|accessdate=13 November 2012}}</ref>
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| * Unipolarity is anarchical. Anarchy results from the incomplete power preponderance of the unipole. [[Columbia University]]'s [[Kenneth Waltz]], whom Monteiro cites, argues that a great power cannot “exert a positive control everywhere in the world.”<ref name="Waltz unipolarity">{{cite journal|last=Waltz|first=Kenneth|title=The Stability of a Bipolar World|journal=Daedalus|date=Summer 1964|volume= 93|issue= 3|pages=pp. 881–909, p. 887|accessdate=13 November 2012|jstor=20026863}}</ref> Therefore, relatively weaker countries have the freedom to pursue policy preferences independent of the unipole. The power projection limitations of the unipole is a distinguishing characteristic between unipolar and [[hegemonic]] systems.
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| * Unipolar systems possess only one great power and face no competition. If a competitor emerges, the international system is no longer unipolar. [[Kenneth Waltz]] maintains that the United States is the only “pole” to possess global interests.<ref name="Waltz unipolarity" />
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| The post-Cold War international system is unipolar: The United States’ defense spending is “close to half of global military expenditures; a blue-water navy superior to all others combined; a chance at a splendid nuclear first strike over its erstwhile foe, Russia; a defense research and development budget that is 80 percent of the total defense expenditures of its most obvious future competitor, China; and unmatched global power-projection capabilities.”<ref name="Monteiro Polarity">{{cite journal|last=Monteiro|first=Nuno|title=Polarity and Power: U.S. Hegemony and China's Challenge|journal=International Security|year=2011/2012|month=Winter|volume= 36|issue= 3|pages=pp. 9–40, p. 9|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00064|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/ISEC_a_00064}}</ref>
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| [[William Wohlforth]], the Daniel Webster professor of government at [[Dartmouth College]], believes unipolarity is peaceful because it “favors the absence of war among great powers and comparatively low levels of competition for prestige or security for two reasons: the leading state’s power advantage removes the problem of hegemonic rivalry from world politics, and it reduces the salience and stakes of balance of power politics among the major states."<ref name="Wohlforth Unipolarity">{{cite journal|last=Wohlforth|first=William|title=The Stability of a Unipolar World|journal=International Security|date=Summer 1999|volume= 24|issue= 1|pages=pp. 5–41, p. 23|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/016228899560031|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/016228899560031}}</ref> This idea is based on [[hegemonic stability theory]] and [[Balance of power in international relations|balance of power]] theory. Hegemonic stability theory stipulates that “powerful states foster international orders that are stable until differential growth in power produces a dissatisfied state with the capability to challenge the dominant state for leadership. The clearer and larger the concentration of power in the leading state, the more peaceful the international order associated with it will be."<ref name="Wohlforth Unipolarity">{{cite journal|last=Wohlforth|first=William|title=The Stability of a Unipolar World|journal=International Security|date=Summer 1999|volume= 24|issue= 1|pages=pp. 5–41, p. 23|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/016228899560031|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/016228899560031}}</ref> [[Balance of power in international relations|Balance of power]] theory stipulates that as long as the international system remains unipolar, balance of power theory creates peace. “Therefore one pole is best, and security competition among the great powers should be minimal.”<ref name="Wohlforth Unipolarity">{{cite journal|last=Wohlforth|first=William|title=The Stability of a Unipolar World|journal=International Security|date=Summer 1999|volume= 24|issue= 1|pages=pp. 5–41, p. 25|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/016228899560031|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/016228899560031}}</ref> Unipolarity generates few incentives for security and prestige competition among great powers.
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| Nuno P. Monteiro argues that international relations theorists have long debated the durability of unipolarity (i.e. when it will end) but less on the relative peacefulness unipolarity brings among nations within an international system. Rather than comparing the relative peacefulness of unipolarity, multipolarity, and bipolarity, he identifies causal pathways to war that are endemic to a unipolar system. He does not question the impossibility of great power war in a unipolar world, which is a central tenet of William C. Wohlforth in his book ''World Out of Balance: International Relations and the Challenge of American Primacy''. Instead he believes “unipolar systems provide incentives for two other types of war: those pitting the sole great power against a relatively weaker state and those exclusively involving weaker states.”<ref name="Monteiro Polarity">{{cite journal|last=Monteiro|first=Nuno|title=Polarity and Power: U.S. Hegemony and China's Challenge|journal=International Security|year=2011/2012|month=Winter|volume= 36|issue= 3|pages=pp. 9–40, p. 12|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00064|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/ISEC_a_00064}}</ref> Monteiro’s hypothesis is influenced by the first two decades of the post-Cold War environment, one that is defined as unipolar and rife with wars. “The United States has been at war for thirteen of the twenty-two years since the end of the Cold War. Put another way, the first two decades of unipolarity, which make up less than 10 percent to U.S. history, account for more than 25 percent of the nation’s total time at war.”<ref name="Monteiro Polarity">{{cite journal|last=Monteiro|first=Nuno|title=Polarity and Power: U.S. Hegemony and China's Challenge|journal=International Security|year=2011/2012|month=Winter|volume= 36|issue= 3|pages=pp. 9–40, p. 11|url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00064|accessdate=13 November 2012|doi=10.1162/ISEC_a_00064}}</ref>
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| ===American primacy===
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| The United States is the only country in the early 21st century that possesses the ability to project military power on a global scale, providing it full command of the global commons. With no viable challenger on the horizon in the short term, the current distribution of power overwhelmingly favors the United States, making the world order it set out to construct in 1945 more robust. The question that remains for international relations theorists is how long this “unipolar moment” will last. [[Sean M. Lynn-Jones]], editor of [[International Security]], provides a summary of arguments put forth by [[Kenneth Waltz]], [[John Ikenberry]], and [[Barry Posner]].<ref name=Lynn-Jones>{{cite book|last=Lynn-Jones|first=Sean|title=Preface to 'Primacy and Its Discontents: American Power and International Stability|year=2008|publisher=The MIT Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=9780262524551|pages=xiii-xxviii|url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/primacy-and-its-discontents}}</ref>
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| ====Kenneth Waltz====
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| In “Structural Realism after the Cold War,” [[Kenneth Waltz]] defends realist theory against a cascade of criticism that emerged after the Cold War. He provides a realist analysis of the currently unipolar structure of world politics, arguing that realism is the best theoretical lens to understanding international politics and the future of U.S. primacy. Waltz also takes on the democratic peace theory, which holds that no two democracies will go to war with the other, as one that doesn’t present a proper challenge to realism. War is rooted in the anarchic structure, or a self-help environment, of the international system, Waltz argues. Simply changing the domestic political structure of countries will not eliminate war. Waltz notes, however, that “democracies seldom fight democracies.”<ref name="Waltz Structural Realism">{{cite journal|last=Waltz|first=Kenneth|title=Structural Realism after the Cold War|journal=International Security|date=Summer 2000|volume= 25|issue= 1|pages=5–41|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/sipa/U6800/readings-sm/Waltz_Structural%20Realism.pdf|accessdate=13 December 2012}}</ref> But democracies are more likely to initiate wars against non-democracies because the former believes the latter must become democratized so as make the democratic peace more robust. Thus, the spread of democracy can decrease the amount of war in the world in Waltz’s view. The second challenge to realist theory argues that economic interdependence promotes peace. Waltz believes this causal logic is backward: Peace can promote economic interdependence. Peace abounds when a political monopoly on force, or a favorable balance of power, prevents revisionist powers from altering the status quo. After all, strong economic interdependence did not prevent war in 1914. The third challenge that Waltz confronts is the rise of international institutions as primary actors in international politics. Waltz argues that the structure of power in the international system determines the role of institutions. [[NATO]], for example, is often cited as an institution that has outlived its original mandate—preventing a Soviet onslaught of Western Europe. In Waltz’s view, NATO’s continued existence conveniently “illustrates how international institutions are created and maintained by stronger states (e.g., the United States) to serve their perceived and misperceived interests.”<ref name="Waltz Structural Realism" /> Finally, Waltz turns to the question of international politics and provides a realist interpretation to the U.S. unipolar moment, which he believes is fleeting for two reasons. With no great power to check its adventurism, the United States will weaken itself by misusing its power internationally. “Wide latitude” of “policy choices” will allow the U.S. to act capriciously on the basis of “internal political pressure and national ambition.”<ref name="Waltz Structural Realism" /> Second, even if the United States acts benevolently, states will still attempt to balance against it because the power asymmetry demands it: In a self-help system, states worry not about other states’ intentions as they do other states' capabilities. “Unbalanced power leaves weaker states feeling uneasy and gives them reason to strengthen their positions,” Waltz says.<ref name="Waltz Structural Realism" /> He sees China as already beginning to counter U.S. power. In conclusion, the U.S. unipolar moment is fleeting and multipolarity is already materializing.
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| ====John Ikenberry====
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| In “Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and Persistence of American Postwar Order,” [[John Ikenberry]] explains why other great powers decided not to balance against the United States after the Cold War ended. In his view, realist predictions of power balancing did not bear fruit because the United States engaged in strategic restraint after World War II, thereby convincing weaker states that it was more interested in cooperation rather than domination. U.S. strategic restraint allowed weaker countries to participate in the make-up of the post-war world order, which limited opportunities for the United States to exploit total power advantages. Ikenberry notes that while the United States could have unilaterally engaged in unfettered power projection, it decided instead to “lock in” its advantage by establishing an enduring institutional order, gave weaker countries a voice, reduced great power uncertainly, and mitigated the security dilemma. The liberal basis of U.S. hegemony—a transparent democratic political system—has made it easier for other countries to accept the post-war order, Ikenberry explains. “American hegemony is reluctant, open, and highly institutionalized—or in a word, liberal” and “short of large-scale war or a global economic crisis, the American hegemonic order appears to be immune to would-be hegemonic challengers.”<ref name=Ikenberry>{{cite journal|last=Ikenberry|first=G. John|title=Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Persistence of American Postwar Order|journal=International Security|year=1998/1999|month=Winter|volume= 23|issue= 3|pages=pp. 43–78|accessdate=13 December 2012|jstor=2539338}}</ref>
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| ====Barry Posen====
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| In “Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony,” [[Barry Posen]] focuses exclusively on U.S. military capabilities. A key to U.S. preeminence is “command of the commons—command of the sea, space, and air.” But command of the commons and the U.S. persistence in maintaining its near omnipresence raise important questions for U.S. strategy: “Even before the September 11 terrorist attacks, the foreign policy debate had narrowed to a dispute between primacy and selective engagement, between nationalist, unilateralist version of hegemony, and a liberal, multilateral version of hegemony.”<ref name="Posen Commons">{{cite journal|last=Posen|first=Barry|title=Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony|journal=International Security|date=Summer 2003|volume= 28|issue= 1|pages=pp. 5–46|url=http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/posen_summer_2003.pdf|accessdate=13 December 2012}}</ref> U.S. command of the commons, Posen argues, provides a strong case for selective engagement. Posen believes that the Bush Doctrine was problematic because it not only created unease among U.S. allies, but also caused “others to ally against the United States.”<ref name="Posen Commons">{{cite journal|last=Posen|first=Barry|title=Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony|journal=International Security|date=Summer 2003|volume= 28|issue= 1|pages=pp. 5–46|url=http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/posen_summer_2003.pdf|accessdate=13 December 2012}}</ref> Securing the commons through selective engagement is a superior strategy because it cost effective, secures U.S. interests, and makes the nearly omnipresent U.S. military tolerable because it provides security guarantees to other nations.
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| ===Examples of unipolarity===
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| The most recent example of a unipolar world has been one dominated by the [[United States of America]] since 1991, in the aftermath of the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]]. Other states and empires in the past have dominated their known worlds in a unipolar fashion. Some examples are below. Note that most of the cases as well as the dates given are open to some debate.
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| * The [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian Empire]] from c. 3150 BCE to c. 1285 BCE with some long breaks – from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt to the conflict with the [[Hittites]].
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| * The [[Akkadian Empire]] from c. 2279 BCE to c. 2193 BCE.
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| * The [[Assyrian Empire]] from 675 BCE to 626 BCE – from the invasion of Egypt to the revolt of [[Babylon]].
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| * The [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]] from 539 BCE to 449 BCE – from the conquest of Babylon to the [[Peace of Callias]] at latest.
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| * [[Alexander the Great|Alexander's Empire]] from 331 BCE to 323 BCE – from the [[Battle of Gaugamela]] to his death.
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| * [[China]] from 221 BCE to 1840 CE, with several long breaks – from unification under the [[Qin Dynasty]] to the [[First Opium War]].
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| * The [[Roman Republic]]/[[Roman Empire]]/[[Byzantine Empire]] from 188 BCE to 224 CE.
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| * The [[Mongol Empire]] from 1227 to 1279 – from about the death of [[Genghis Khan]] to its peak.
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| * The [[Aztec Empire]] from c. 1481 to 1521 – from regional dominance to the invasion by [[Hernán Cortés|Cortez]].
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| * The [[Inca Empire]] from c. 1470 to 1532 – from the conquest of the [[Chimu]] to the invasion by [[Pizarro]].
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| * [[India]] from 322 BCE to 17th century, with several long breaks from unification under [[Maurya Dynasty]] to the fall of [[Mughal Empire]] and [[Colonial India|India becoming colonized]].
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| * The [[British Empire]] from the [[Napoleonic Wars|End of the Napoleonic Wars (1815)]] to the [[World War I|Beginning of World War I (1914)]].
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| == Bipolarity ==<!-- This section is linked from [[National security]] -->
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| {{Section OR|date=September 2007}}
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| Bipolarity is a distribution of power in which two states have the majority of economic, military, and cultural influence internationally or regionally. Often, spheres of influence would develop. For example, in the Cold War, most Western and capitalist states would fall under the influence of the USA, while most Communist states would fall under the influence of the USSR. After this, the two powers will normally maneuver for the support of the unclaimed areas.
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| [[Image:Cold War Map 1959.svg|thumb|250px| [[Sphere of influence|Spheres of influence]] of the two [[Cold War]] [[superpower]]s (the [[United States|US]] and the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]) in 1959.<br/>{{legend inline|#0000b0|}}{{legend inline|#96b3f6|The "[[First World]]": [[NATO]] members (dark blue) and their "[[Western Bloc|Western]]" allies (light blue).}}<br/>{{legend inline|#b00000|}}{{legend inline|#f4a091|The "[[Second World]]": [[Warsaw Pact]] signees (red) and their [[Socialist state|Socialist]] allies (pink).}}<br/>{{legend inline|#b9b9b9|}}{{legend inline|#90c090|The "[[Third World]]": [[Neutrality (international relations)|Neutral]] nations (grey) and [[Colonialism|Colonies]] (green).}}]]
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| ===Examples===
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| *The [[United States]] and the [[Soviet Union]] during the peak of the [[Cold War]]. However, the [[Sino-Soviet split]] of circa 1960 led to the rise of [[People's Republic of China|China]] as a possible third superpower.
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| *Britain and [[France]] during the 17th and 18th centuries.
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| ===Regional examples===
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| *[[Sparta]] and [[Athens]] during much of pre-Alexandrian Greek history.
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| *[[Carthage]] and the [[Roman Republic]] until the [[Second Punic War]].
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| *[[Roman Empire]] and the [[Arsacid Empire]]/[[Sassanid Empire]] during the [[Roman-Persian Wars]], until the Arab invasion of Persia.
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| *[[Russia]] and [[Japan]], causing bipolarity in spheres of influence in several parts of [[China]], [[Korea]], and [[Mongolia]] from the late 19th century to the first half of 20th century.
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| *Russia, the [[Safavid Empire|Persian Empire(Safavid)]] and the [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish Empire]] in struggles to attain regions surrounding the [[Black Sea]], from the early 18th century until [[World War I]].
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| *[[Israel]] and [[Egypt]] could be considered regional powers in the Middle East during the [[Arab-Israeli conflict]] from 1948 to 1978.
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| *[[Tutsis]] and [[Hutus]] during the Rwandan Genocide
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| *[[India]] and [[Pakistan]] from 1947 to present-day
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| ===Multi-state examples of bipolarity===
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| The bipolar system can be said to extend to much larger systems, such as alliances or organizations, which would not be considered nation-states, but would still have power concentrated in two primary groups.
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| In both [[World Wars]], much of the world, and especially [[Europe]], the [[United States]] and [[Japan]] had been divided into two respective spheres – one case being the [[Axis powers|Axis]] and [[Allies]] of [[World War II]] (1939–1945) – and the division of power between the [[Central Powers]] and [[Allied Powers]] during [[World War I]] (1914–1918). Neutral nations, however, may have caused what may be assessed as an example of tripolarity as well within both of the conflicts.
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| The [[NATO]] and [[Warsaw Pact]] groupings could also be considered to be bipolar if one does not include the [[Non-Aligned Movement]].
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| == Multipolarity ==
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| Multipolarity is a distribution of power in which more than two nation-states have nearly equal amounts of military, cultural, and economic influence.
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| [[File:World empires and colonies around World War I.png|thumb|300px|right|Empires of the world in 1910.]]
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| Opinions on the stability of multipolarity differ. [[Political realism|Classical realist]] theorists, such as [[Hans Morgenthau]] and [[E. H. Carr]], hold that multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems, as great powers can gain power through alliances and petty wars that do not directly challenge other powers; in bipolar systems, classical realists argue, this is not possible. On the other hand, the [[neorealism (international relations)|neorealist]] focuses on security and inverts the formula: states in a multipolar system can focus their fears on any number of other powers and, misjudging the intentions of other states, unnecessarily compromise their security, while states in a bipolar system always focus their fears on one other power, meaning that at worst the powers will miscalculate the force required to counter threats and spend slightly too much on the operation. However, due to the complexity of [[mutually assured destruction]] scenarios, with nuclear weapons, multipolar systems may be more stable than bipolar systems even in the neorealist analysis. This system tends to have many shifting alliances until one of two things happens. Either a balance of power is struck, and neither side wants to attack the other, or one side will attack the other because it either fears the potential of the new alliance, or it feels that it can defeat the other side.
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| One of the major implications of an international system with any number of poles, including a multipolar system, is that international decisions will often be made for strategic reasons to maintain a balance of power rather than out of ideological or historical reasons.
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| The Eastern Mediterranean [[Hellenistic]] kingdoms of the 3rd century BCE, which grew out of [[Alexander the Great]]'s empire, formed a good example of a multipolar political world. Macedonia ([[Antigonids]]), Syria ([[Seleucids]]), Egypt ([[Ptolemies]]) vied with one another and states such as [[Pergamon]], [[Parthia]] and the [[La Tene]] Celts in shifting alliances for domination of the region. Combinations against the strongest state kept any one from establishing hegemony, but eventually left all weakened enough to be dominated by [[Rome]] from the mid-2nd century BCE.<ref>[[Hellenistic period]]</ref>
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| The 'Concert of Europe,' a period from after the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War, was an example of peaceful multipolarity (the great powers of Europe assembled regularly to discuss international and domestic issues). [[World War I]], [[World War II]], the [[Thirty Years War]], the [[Warring States period]], the [[Three Kingdoms]] period and the tripartite division between [[Song Dynasty]]/[[Liao Dynasty]]/[[Jin Dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin Dynasty]]/[[Yuan Dynasty]] are all examples of a wartime multipolarity.
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| [[Image:Nixon Mao 1972-02-29.png|thumb|[[Richard Nixon]] meets [[Mao Zedong]].]]
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| ==Nonpolarity==
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| Nonpolarity is an international system with numerous centers of power but no center dominates any other centre. Centers of power can be nation-states, corporations, non-governmental organizations, terrorist groups, and such. Power is found in many hands and many places.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faessay87304-p0/richard-n-haass/the-age-of-nonpolarity.html |title=The Age of Nonpolarity |accessdate=2008-08-05 |publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]] |date=May/June 2008 |last=Haass |first=Richard N.}}</ref>
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| == Devolution ==
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| Though usually defined as the [[Devolution|decentralization of power within a state]], the term devolution, when applied to international relations, describes the process by which economically and militarily emerging states gain greater autonomy in regional affairs but do not achieve global power status. Against the theory that the world is moving from a unipolar order, dominated by the United States, to a multipolar world with various centers of power, [[Amitai Etzioni]] argues that, in the foreseeable future, the global redistribution of power is following a different pattern: "the change seems to be toward more regional autonomy, or increased devolution, and greater variety in the relationships between the United States and regional powers."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Etzioni|first=Amitai|title=The Devolution of American Power|journal=[[The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs]]|date=Winter 2012|volume=37|issue=1|page=13|url=http://icps.gwu.edu/files/2013/02/Etzioni_Devolution_of_American_Power.pdf}}</ref> This alternative theory has policy implications as "the desire for more control among rising powers can be more readily accommodated than aspirations to challenge the United States as a global superpower."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Etzioni|first=Amitai|title=The Devolution of American Power|journal=The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs|date=Winter 2012|volume=37|issue=1|page=14|url=http://icps.gwu.edu/files/2013/02/Etzioni_Devolution_of_American_Power.pdf}}</ref>
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| == Measuring the power concentration ==
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| The [[Correlates of War]] uses a systemic concentration of power formula to calculate the polarity of a given [[great power]] system. The formula was developed by [[J. David Singer]] et al. in 1972.<ref name="mansfield">{{cite journal |last=Mansfield |first=Edward D. |authorlink=Edward Mansfield |date=March 1993 |title=Concentration, Polarity, and the Distribution of Power |journal=International Studies Quarterly |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=105–128 |id= |accessdate=2007-03-01 |doi=10.2307/2600833 |jstor=2600833 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing }}</ref>
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| : <math> \text{Concentration}_t = \sqrt{\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{N_t} (S_{it})^2 - \frac{1}{N_t}}{1 - \frac{1}{N_t}}}</math>
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| *''N''<sub>''t''</sub> = the number of states in the great power system at time ''t''
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| *''S''<sub>''it''</sub> = the proportion of power possessed by state ''i'' at time ''t'' (must be a decimal figure)
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| :''S'' = the proportion of power possessed
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| :''i'' = the state of which the proportion of control over the system's power is being measured
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| :''t'' = the time at which the concentration of resources (i.e. power) is being calculated
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| *<math>\sum_{i=1}^n (S_{it})^2</math> = the sum of the proportion of power possessed by all states in the great power system
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| The closer the resulting concentration is to zero, the more evenly divided power is. The closer to 1, the more concentrated power is. There is a general but not strict correlation between concentration and polarity. It is rare to find a result over 0.5, but a result between 0.4 and 0.5 usually indicates a unipolar system, while a result between 0.2 and 0.4 usually indicated a bipolar or multipolar system. Concentration can be plotted over time, so that the fluctuations and trends in concentration can be observed.
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| == See also ==
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| * [[Balance of power in international relations]]
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| * [[International monetary systems]]
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| * [[Non-aligned movement]]
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| * [[Power in international relations]]
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| * [[Posthegemony]]
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| * [[Lateral pressure theory]]
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| ==Bibliography==
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| * Thompson, William R. ''On Global War: Historical–Structural Approaches to World Politics.'' Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988, pp. 209–210.
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist}}
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| ==External links==
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| *[http://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/drg/ Global Power Barometer]
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| {{International power}}
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| {{DEFAULTSORT:Polarity In International Relations}}
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| [[Category:International relations theory]]
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