How could the international system led by the United States adjust to accommodate China's growing power? This question has become one of the defining issues of the time in world politics. The primary concern is whether China's rise could defy history and be peaceful. 

China's rise is only one recent episode in the long history of great power relations, which has played a decisive role in shaping the international system the world has seen. This course's primary goal is to explain the linkages between great power competition and cooperation, and the international order that results from their interaction.

The course begins with an introduction to the primary schools of thought in international relations, which provide the foundation for understanding the stability in great-power relations discussed in the course's follow-on parts. The second part of the course introduces the concept of power transition among great powers, discusses its linkages to great power wars, and reviews historical cases of power transition. The third part focuses on the international order that might emerge from the end of great-power wars and on ways to maintain it. Finally, the course concludes by examining the prospects for great-power relations amid China's rise.