Hegemony, not anarchy: why China and Japan are not balancing US unipolar power

The United States today dominates the globe and many regionalgeographical subsystems in an unprecedented way, maintaininga hegemonic order that is in no way similar to the ‘anarchy’assumed in realist analyses. The global system today is notsimply unipolar; it is a hegemonic system that is increasinglyglobalized, in which the basic concepts of realism (anarchy,self-help and power balancing) provide little guidance or understandingin explaining state behavior. This paper describes the US hegemonicsystem, analyzes the roles of China and Japan within this system,and examines how the Bush administration's plans for missiledefense might transform the system. The conclusion points tosome critical implications from this analysis for realist interpretationsof international politics.