Open AccessIntroduction to the Thematic Articles: Hegemonic Rivalry: Past and Future
Author(s) -
Christopher ChaseDunn
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of world-systems research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.219
H-Index - 2
ISSN - 1076-156X
DOI - 10.5195/jwsr.1995.41
Subject(s) - rivalry , hegemony , industrialisation , world economy , world war ii , productivity , kondratiev wave , political economy , boom , political science , politics , economy , world system , development economics , economics , market economy , economic growth , keynesian economics , engineering , law , environmental engineering , macroeconomics
The international political economy has experienced a sequence of economic booms and busts, as well as periods of relative peace and world war, for the last 500 years. Capitalist industrialization has expanded productivity and integrated everlarger numbers of people into a single global economy in waves of industrialization and market expansion. These waves have been repeatedly punctuated by world wars. The current level of economic integration, and other factors, cause many students of the global system to argue that the periodic outbreak of world wars is over. This book focuses on both long run trends and recent developments in the modern world-system, and their implications for the future of humankind. Will the cycles of boom bust, peace and war continue? Or have long terms trends (or recent changes) altered the nature of thesystem sufficiently such that these oscillations will cease, or take a less destructive form?