With the rise of new powers and the decline of seemingly unchallenged US dominance in world politics, a conventional wisdom is gaining ground that a new multipolar order is taking shape. Yet multipolarity - an order with multiple centres of power - is variously used as a description of the current distribution of power, of the likely shape of a future global order, or even as a prescription for how power 'should' be distributed in the international system.

To understand the power of the different - and sometimes competing - narratives on offer today about the changing global order, a global perspective is necessary. This book explores how the concept of a multipolar order is being used for different purposes in different national contexts. From rising powers to established powers, contemporary debates are analysed by a set of leading scholars to provide in-depth insight into the use and abuse of a widely employed but rarely explored concept.

Introduction
1 The utility and limits of polarity analysis - Benjamin Zala

Part I: Rising and re-emerging powers
2 'Mirror, mirror on the wall': China and the concept of multipolarity in the post-Cold War era - Nicholas Khoo and Zhang Qingmin
3 India: Seeking multipolarity, favouring multilateralism, pursuing multialignment - Ian Hall
4 Brazil: Pursuing a multipolar mirage? - Luis L. Schenoni
5 Multipolarity in Russia: A philosophical and practical understanding - Elena Chebankova

Part II: The unipole and its allies
6 Does the United States face a multipolar future? Washington's response through the lens of technology - James S. Johnson
7 Japan and the dangers of multipolarisation - H.D.P. Envall
8 The uses and abuses of the polarity discourse in UK foreign and defence politics - David Blagden

Conclusion
9 Debating the distribution of power and status in the early twenty-first century - Benjamin Zala

Index

Editor

Benjamin Zala is Research Fellow in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University