Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions

Why do rising powers sometimes challenge an international order that enables their growth, and at other times support an order that constrains them? Ascending Order offers the first comprehensive study of conflict and cooperation as new powers join the global arena. International institutions shape the choices of rising states as they pursue equal status with established powers. Open membership rules and fair decision-making procedures facilitate equality and cooperation, while exclusion and unfairness frequently produce conflict. Using original and robust archival evidence, the book examines these dynamics in three cases: the United States and the maritime laws of war in the mid-nineteenth century; Japan and naval arms control in the interwar period; and India and nuclear non-proliferation in the Cold War. This study shows that the future of contemporary international order depends on the ability of international institutions to address the status ambitions of rising powers such as China and India.

About the author

Rohan Mukherjee

Rohan Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale-NUS College. Dr Mukherjee’s research focuses on rising powers and how they navigate the power and status hierarchies of international order. His regional focus is on the Asia-Pacific, particularly how major powers such as India, China, the United States, and Japan, and smaller states in South and Southeast Asia, manage the regional effects of global transitions. His research has been published in journals such as International Affairs, Asian Security, Contemporary Politics, Survival, Global Governance, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, India Review, and International Journal, as well as in edited volumes from academic presses such as Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, University of North Carolina, and Brookings. He has also co-edited a policy-focused volume, published by Oxford University Press, that brought together top scholars and analysts across generations from Japan and India to chart the future course of bilateral relations.

About the discussant

Mauro Bonavita

Mauro Bonavita joined the King's India Institute as a PhD student in October 2020 to pursue his research on Indian foreign policy and the Indo-Pacific region. Mauro is a political scientist, he obtained his BA from the University of Genova and his MA in Geopolitics and Strategic Studies from the University Carlos III of Madrid. Before joining the King's India Institute, Mauro worked both in India and in Europe in the field of journalism, in the internationalization of Indian private universities, in exchange programs between Indian and European students, in the vibrant world of Indian start-ups. He taught history and geography in English to high school students in Madrid.