This Monocle 24 podcast takes a look at the latest soft power index and cultural power of states.

There is good reason to think China's rise might be the most important development in world politics during the 21st century. America is now the dominant great power in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is often a jealous god. That raises the question: is a powerful China likely to clash with the United States? Moreover, can a rising China live peacefully with its neighbors, including Japan, India, and Vietnam? Mearsheimer will argue that, if China's economic growth continues, it will build much more powerful military forces than it now has and attempt to dominate Asia the way the United States dominates the Western Hemisphere.

Across the world we’re seeing governments and popular movements come to power that are opposed to globalization. Why? In this third lecture in INET’s “Economics For People” series, Ha-Joon Chang explains the backlash to globalization.

Liberals and realists have very different positions on security and the likelihood of conflict. Firstly they differ on the notion of power. Realists like Mearsheimer believe that the type of power that really matters is military power. If a nation cannot defend itself from potential adversaries, it will never feel safe. This is what they term the ‘security dilemma’, that is the constant accumulation of power to ward off potential aggressors.