Abstract

The theory of power transition focusing on Robert Gilpin (War and change in world politics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1981) It has been paid special attention after the Cold War because the question of who will be a next hegemon dominates global politics as the United States manifests the symptoms of confusion and decline. Instead of highlighting top leaders, this chapter presents the dialectical power transition whereby hegemonic decline due to their mishaps and mistakes leads their vulnerability inadvertently laid bare. Conceptually, the dialectical power transition makes use of the two-level game (Putnam) and the second image reversed (Gourevitch).