Major Power Relations

The IISS closely monitors the capabilities and strategic direction of all major powers and the relations among them.  Particular emphasis is placed on the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, China and India.  In addition to active regional research programmes covering these countries, the Major Power Relations Programme provides comparative analyses between and among them.

The IISS is initiating a project that gauges the perceptions, capabilities, strategies and relations among the major powers, with particular focus on rising powers in South and East Asia.   

For information about the Major Power Relations Programme, contact Dr Patrick Cronin.

Recent IISS publications related to Major Power Relations include:

Adelphi Paper

• Revitalizing US-Russian Security Cooperation: Practical Measures, Richard Weitz (AP 377)

• Japan’s Re-emergence as a ‘Normal’ Military Powers, Christopher W. Hughes (AP 368/9)

Survival articles  

• The Impending Demise of the Postwar System, Kishore Mahbubani (Vol. 47, No. 4)

• Preventive Force in US National Security Strategy, James Steinberg (Vol. 47, No. 4)

• The Lost Meaning of Strategy, Hew Strachan (Vol. 47, No. 3)

• Terms of Estrangement: French-American Relations in Perspective, Simon Serfaty (Vol. 47, No. 3)

• China in Africa, Chris Alden (Vol. 47, No. 3)

• The Sources and Limits of Sino-Japanese Tensions, Denny Roy (Vol. 47, No. 2)

• A Dubious Template for US Foreign Policy, Chester A. Crocker (Vol. 47, No 1)

• Europe and America in the Age of Bush, Marta Dassu and Roberto Menotti (Vol. 47, No. 1)

• The Myth of the ‘German Way’: German Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Relations, Peter Rudolf (Vol. 47, No. 1)

Strategic Comments

• America’s Alliances in East Asia: Purposes and Prospects (Vol. 11, Issue 3)

• US-Indian Nuclear Energy Cooperation (Vol. 11, Issue 10)

• The East Asia Summit (Vol. 11, Issue 10)

• Japan’s Strategic Realignment (Vol. 11, Issue 9)

• Transatlantic Relations (Vol. 11, Issue 7)

• China’s Changing Military (Vol. 11, Issue 6)

• India’s Naval Posture (Vol. 11, Issue 6)

• The Pentagon Eyes China’s Military (Vol. 11, Issue 5)

• America’s Alliances in the Middle East (Vol. 11, Issue 3)

• America, India and Pakistan: A New Approach from Washington (Vol. 11, Issue 2)

• China, America and Southeast Asia (Vol. 11, Issue 1)