Between cooperation and competition: major powers in shared neighbourhoods

ABSTRACT

This introductory article to the special issue on major powers in shared neighbourhoods sets the scenery by introducing the research objectives, situating them in the relevant academic context with references to the literatures on great power dynamics, regionalism and foreign policy analysis. It presents a conceptual framework for the study of ‘major powers’, understood as regional leaders, and their different forms of interaction in shared neighbourhoods, before providing an overview of the key insights of the individual contributions. The article concludes by identifying the main factors explaining the shape of the relationship between major powers in their shared region and outlining a research agenda on comparative neighbourhood policy studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Coexistence
• competition
• conflict
• cooperation
• neighbourhood
• power

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note on contributors

Simon Schunz is professor in the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe and Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) in Bruges.

Sieglinde Gstöhl is professor and director of the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Luk Van Langenhove is research professor at the Institute of European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Associate Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) in Bruges.

Notes

1 Nevertheless, the territorial and maritime disputes in the East and South China Sea between China and some of its neighbours (Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines) are clearly about competition (see Morton, 2016; Xinbo, 2016).

2 See, for instance, Zeng and Breslin (2016), and the debate on China's concept of a ‘new type of great power relations’.

3 In 1823, President James Monroe stated that the European powers should respect the Western hemisphere as the US sphere of interest.

4 For example, as Latin American countries have been looking for greater political and economic autonomy with a growing role of extra-hemispheric actors, such as China, India, Russia and Europe, the US role in its backyard has come under pressure (Shifter & Joyce, 2009). Moreover, the US ‘pivot’ towards the Asia-Pacific region has helped trigger China's ‘new neighbourhood diplomacy’ (Xinbo, 2016, pp. 850–851).

5 Positive-sum games are situations in which the total of gains and losses is greater than zero. Negative-sum games describe situations in which the total of gains and losses is less than zero and the only way for one party to maintain the status quo is to take something from another party. Zero-sum games are situations in which one side's gain is equivalent to the other side's loss.

6 It should be kept in mind that some major powers interact not only in shared neighbourhoods, but also in other regions.