IRMO Brief 10/2022 - USA and China: Which is the Revisionist State and Which is the Status Quo State?

It seems that US-China relations can be fully described in terms of the classical realism theory of international relations. In such a view, the USA is a status quo force, and China is a revisionist force that strives to change the distribution of power in the system of international relations and, ultimately, wants to oust the current leader from the position of global hegemon and take his place. According to the realism theory, such rivalry is inevitable whenever a state whose power has become comparable to the power of the leader, appears in the system of international relations. In doing so, it is not important whether the internal political structures of theleaders and challengers are similar or different, whether they are ideologically close or completely disparate.

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