Imperialistic Nationalism and the Pursuit of Great-Power Status
Imperialistic Nationalism and the Pursuit of Great-Power Status
This collection examines how nationalism influences the pursuit of international power, prestige, and influence. The sources explore the historical evolution of empire, competing theories of great-power politics, status competition, civilizational identity, and the foreign policies of both established and emerging powers. Together they illustrate how governments have sought international recognition through military strength, diplomacy, economic development, ideology, and symbolic claims to national greatness.
Historical Foundations of Imperialism and Nationalism
The collection begins with classic works on nationalism, imperialism, and international politics. These sources explain how nation-states emerged from empires, how nationalism became tied to state power, and how imperial expansion was justified through ideas of civilization, economic development, racial hierarchy, and national destiny. Foundational scholarship also explores competing interpretations of imperialism from liberal, realist, Marxist, and postcolonial perspectives.
Nationalism and International Status
Many works focus on status seeking as an independent motivation in international relations. Rather than pursuing security alone, governments often seek recognition as major powers through military modernization, technological achievement, diplomatic leadership, institutional influence, or symbolic demonstrations of national prestige. These studies explain why countries sometimes invest heavily in projects whose political value exceeds their immediate strategic necessity.
Great-Power Competition and International Order
A major theme concerns the changing international system. Numerous sources examine the transition from unipolarity toward renewed competition among major powers, including the United States, China, Russia, and other regional actors. The collection discusses debates surrounding the liberal international order, multipolarity, strategic autonomy, geopolitical rivalry, and the future structure of global governance.
Russia and Imperial Nationalism
Russia receives extensive attention throughout the collection. The articles examine the historical continuity between imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and the contemporary Russian Federation. Topics include spheres of influence, nationalism, historical memory, the invasion of Ukraine, regional dominance, Eurasian integration, and the Kremlin's pursuit of recognition as a leading global power. Several sources analyze how domestic authoritarianism and external ambitions reinforce one another.
China and National Rejuvenation
Numerous works examine China's long-term pursuit of national rejuvenation and international influence. Topics include the Belt and Road Initiative, the Digital Silk Road, maritime strategy, technological competition, nationalism, historical memory, and China's effort to reshape international institutions while expanding diplomatic, military, and economic influence.
Turkey, India, and Civilizational Politics
The collection explores how countries such as Turkey and India combine nationalism with historical narratives of civilization, empire, and regional leadership. These sources analyze neo-Ottoman ideas, Hindu nationalism, strategic autonomy, and the growing use of civilizational identity in foreign policy. Several works also compare similar developments in China and Russia.
Emerging and Regional Powers
Additional sources examine Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Japan, Iran, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These studies demonstrate that the pursuit of prestige is not limited to traditional superpowers. Middle powers frequently seek greater regional influence through diplomacy, military modernization, economic development, or institutional leadership while balancing domestic limitations.
Competing Interpretations of Empire
The bibliography presents multiple perspectives on empire and imperialism. Some works argue that imperial expansion primarily reflects strategic security concerns, while others emphasize capitalism, economic dependency, ideology, colonialism, or informal influence. The collection includes liberal, realist, conservative, Marxist, postcolonial, and revisionist interpretations, allowing readers to compare competing explanations for great-power behavior.
Nationalism, Democracy, and Authoritarianism
Several articles investigate the relationship between nationalism and domestic political systems. They explore how governments use national identity, historical grievance, external threats, and civilizational narratives to consolidate authority, strengthen executive power, marginalize opposition, and legitimize foreign policy ambitions. Other works examine democratic nationalism, civic identity, and the continuing tension between sovereignty and international cooperation.
Conclusion
Taken together, these sources demonstrate that imperialistic nationalism cannot be explained by military power alone. National identity, historical memory, status competition, economic capability, ideology, and international recognition all shape the behavior of states seeking greater influence. The collection highlights both the opportunities and dangers associated with great-power ambitions while presenting diverse scholarly perspectives from international relations, history, political science, economics, and area studies.
Foundations: Nationalism, Empire, and Status
Rethinking the End of Empire: Nationalism, State Formation, and the International System
| Lynn M. Tesser | Ethnopolitics | 2026
Investigates why a world of nation-states emerged from multinational empires even though early nationalist activism was often led by relatively small elites. The article connects imperial collapse, international recognition, and the spread of sovereign statehood.
Novel Perspectives on Status in Global Politics
| Ali Bilgiç and contributors | Politics and Governance | 2025
Introduces recent research on status seeking as a social and relational dimension of international politics. The collection shows how states seek prestige through military strength, diplomacy, cooperation, institutional leadership, and displays of national distinction.
Weaponizing Civilizationalism for Authoritarianism
| Ihsan Yilmaz and Nicholas Morieson | Palgrave Macmillan | 2025
Compares the political use of civilizational narratives in China, India, Russia, and Turkey. Leaders portray their countries as ancient civilizations entitled to regional leadership while depicting liberal democracy and Western influence as threats to national authenticity.
The End of the Near Abroad
| Thomas de Waal | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | May 16, 2024
Reconsiders Russia’s relations with former Soviet republics as unequal relationships shaped by imperial and Soviet legacies. It shows how neighboring countries increasingly reject Moscow’s assumption that they belong within a privileged Russian sphere of influence.
The Logic of Distinction: Nationalism and Status Seeking in International Relations
| Mariana Monteiro Resende | Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional | 2024
Develops a framework connecting nationalist identity to the pursuit of international status. Nationalist governments seek distinction by emphasizing exceptional history, cultural superiority, technological achievement, military capability, or leadership within a chosen regional group.
Ukraine and the Words That Lead to Mass Murder
| Timothy Snyder | The New Yorker | April 12, 2022
Examines ideological language used to deny Ukrainian nationhood and justify Russian violence. The article demonstrates how imperial nationalism can portray an independent neighboring society as artificial, dangerous, or controlled by foreign conspirators.
Nationalism and International Conflict
| Andreas Wimmer | State of Nationalism | 2021
Reviews scholarship on how nationalism affects war, territorial disputes, occupation, and state formation. Nationalism can motivate expansion and conflict, but it can also make conquest more difficult by increasing popular resistance to foreign domination.
Nationalism and Foreign Policy
| Harris Mylonas and Kendrick Kuo | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics | 2020
Reviews how different forms of nationalism shape alliances, war, territorial policies, and relations with diaspora populations. It also shows that foreign policy can reshape national identity by defining external enemies, historical missions, and boundaries of belonging.
The Strongmen Strike Back
| Robert Kagan | Brookings Institution | March 14, 2019
Discusses the resurgence of authoritarianism and blood-and-soil nationalism in Russia, China, Turkey, and parts of the democratic world. Strongman leaders promise restored greatness while weakening liberal restraints on executive authority.
Worldmaking After Empire
| Adom Getachew | Princeton University Press | 2019
Recovers anti-colonial projects that sought more than the replication of European nation-states. Thinkers from Africa and the Caribbean proposed federations, regional institutions, and economic reforms intended to overcome imperial hierarchy.
How to Hide an Empire
| Daniel Immerwahr | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2019
Documents the territories, military bases, and overseas possessions that supported American global power. It challenges the national story that the United States expanded without developing a significant empire.
The Case for Nationalism
| Rich Lowry | Broadside Books | 2019
Presents nationalism as a source of solidarity, democratic accountability, and national independence. The argument provides a useful contrast with scholarship emphasizing expansionism, exclusion, and the imperial uses of national greatness.
The Return of Marco Polo’s World
| Robert D. Kaplan | RAND Corporation | 2018
Presents Eurasia as an increasingly connected geopolitical space shaped by China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Europe. Infrastructure and trade routes are interpreted as instruments through which states pursue influence resembling older imperial networks.
Liberal Internationalism: Historical Trajectory and Current Prospects
| Beate Jahn | International Affairs | 2018
Traces the history of liberal internationalism and its relationship to empire, capitalism, and Western power. It challenges narratives that present the liberal order as separate from hierarchy, coercion, and national interest.
Nationalism as a Claim to a State
| John Breuilly | State of Nationalism | 2018
Defines nationalism as a political movement seeking control of state power in the name of a nation. This framework helps distinguish ordinary cultural identity from projects involving sovereignty, territorial expansion, or political domination.
The Virtue of Nationalism
| Yoram Hazony | Basic Books | 2018
Defends sovereign nation-states against universal empires and supranational government. Critics argue that the book underestimates how powerful nations can transform sovereignty into domination over weaker peoples.
The Meaning of Sharp Power
| Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig | Foreign Affairs | November 16, 2017
Introduces the concept of sharp power to describe authoritarian influence that manipulates information and institutions abroad. Such activities extend national power while exploiting the openness of democratic societies.
Internationalism or Isolationism? The Chatham House–YouGov Survey
| Thomas Raines | Chatham House | January 30, 2015
Reports British public and elite attitudes toward international engagement and national power. Many respondents favored retaining great-power ambitions, illustrating the persistence of status expectations after material decline.
The Hundred-Year Marathon
| Michael Pillsbury | Henry Holt | 2015
Argues that Chinese strategists pursue a long-term plan to replace the United States as the dominant global power. Critics contend that the thesis exaggerates coherence and treats diverse Chinese debates as a single strategy.
Nationalism and the Crisis in Ukraine
| Serhii Plokhy | Foreign Affairs | 2014
Places conflict over Ukraine within the histories of Russian, Ukrainian, and European nationalism. Competing interpretations of identity and empire influence territorial claims and arguments about Ukraine’s right to choose its geopolitical orientation.
The Imperial Origins of the Nation-State
| Adria K. Lawrence | Princeton University Press | 2013
Explains why colonial territories developed into sovereign states rather than remaining within reformed empires. Anti-colonial nationalism was shaped by imperial repression, international norms, and competition among political elites.
Nationalism and War
| John A. Hall and Siniša Malešević | Cambridge University Press | 2013
Examines the historical connections between national identity, state organization, military mobilization, and warfare. Modern states gained unprecedented power by presenting military sacrifice as service to a national community.
Never Forget National Humiliation
| Zheng Wang | Columbia University Press | 2012
Shows how memories of foreign invasion and unequal treaties became central to Chinese patriotic education. The narrative encourages national unity and supports the government’s promise to restore China’s strength and international dignity.
History’s Back: Ambitious Autocracies, Hesitant Democracies
| Robert Kagan | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | August 25, 2008
Argues that nationalism and great-power rivalry survived globalization and returned through increasingly assertive authoritarian states. Russia and China use economic growth, state power, and historical grievance to challenge Western influence.
The Dark Side of Democracy
| Michael Mann | Cambridge University Press | 2005
Argues that attempts to create ethnically homogeneous nation-states can produce forced migration and mass violence. National self-rule becomes destructive when political communities are defined as belonging exclusively to one ethnic group.
The Accidental Empire
| Michael Mandelbaum | Foreign Affairs | September 1, 2004
Describes American global influence as an informal empire that provides security and economic benefits without direct colonial administration. Critics dispute whether this power is as consensual or beneficial as the interpretation suggests.
Empire Without Tears
| Niall Ferguson | Foreign Affairs | September 1, 2003
Argues that international stability may require powerful states to provide security and governance beyond their borders. The essay’s favorable comparison of American and British power provoked debate about the costs and inequalities of empire.
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
| Glenn H. Snyder | Political Science Quarterly | 2002
Reviews the argument that great powers seek regional hegemony because uncertainty about other states’ intentions makes domination appear safer than restraint. National expansion is interpreted primarily through strategic structure rather than ideology alone.
Nationalism, Myth, and the State
| Anthony D. Smith | Oxford University Press | 1999
Explains how myths of origin, collective memories, sacred territories, and heroic eras sustain national identity. Political leaders can mobilize these traditions to justify state-building, territorial claims, and aspirations for restored greatness.
Nationalism and the State
| John Breuilly | University of Chicago Press | 1993
Treats nationalism primarily as a form of politics directed toward gaining or using state power. The comparative approach clarifies why nationalist movements may pursue liberation in one setting and domination or expansion in another.
Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity
| Liah Greenfeld | Harvard University Press | 1992
Compares the development of nationalism in England, France, Russia, Germany, and the United States. Different understandings of national dignity and superiority contributed to distinct political institutions and foreign policies.
Soft Power
| Joseph S. Nye Jr. | Foreign Policy | 1990
Introduces the idea that states gain influence through attraction as well as military and economic coercion. Culture, political values, and legitimate policies can become resources in national competition for international status.
The Ethnic Origins of Nations
| Anthony D. Smith | Wiley-Blackwell | 1986
Investigates the premodern ethnic communities, myths, symbols, and memories from which modern nations are often constructed. Claims of ancient continuity can strengthen solidarity while supporting territorial or civilizational ambitions.
Imagined Communities
| Benedict Anderson | Verso | 1983
Explains nations as imagined political communities created through print, administration, language, and shared historical narratives. The work helps clarify how people come to identify with vast national projects and sacrifice for state power.
Nations and Nationalism
| Ernest Gellner | Cornell University Press | 1983
Links modern nationalism to industrial society’s demand for standardized culture, education, and communication. State power and national culture become mutually reinforcing, often placing minorities under pressure to assimilate.
Great-Power Competition and International Order
BRICS Expansion and the Future of World Order
| Stewart Patrick and contributors | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | March 31, 2025
Examines how BRICS members and prospective partners interpret the organization’s expansion. Some governments view it as a means of reforming global institutions, while others use it to elevate national status and promote a post-Western balance of power.
Competing Visions of International Order
| Leslie Vinjamuri and contributors | Chatham House | March 27, 2025
Compares how established and rising states understand sovereignty, global governance, Western leadership, and multipolarity. It demonstrates that demands for a new international order frequently combine postcolonial grievances with ambitions for regional or great-power influence.
Status Symbols in World Politics
| Paul Beaumont and Pål Røren | Cooperation and Conflict | 2025
Explores how particular weapons, institutions, diplomatic roles, and public achievements become symbols of international prestige. It helps explain why governments sometimes pursue costly projects that advertise national greatness without necessarily increasing security.
The Rules-Based Order Versus the Defense of Democracy
| Thomas de Waal | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | September 18, 2024
Discusses the tension between defending international rules and organizing foreign policy around ideological competition. The article considers how Russia and China challenge Western power while also exploiting accusations that the existing order is selective and hierarchical.
Great Power Climbing in the Age of Resentment
| Steven Ward | Yale University Press | 2024
Explores how national resentment affects attempts to move upward in the international hierarchy. Leaders can mobilize perceived humiliation and disrespect to justify confrontational policies and demands for recognition.
A World of Blocs
| Aaron L. Friedberg | Center for Strategic and International Studies | April 6, 2023
Describes the possible emergence of competing geopolitical blocs centered on the United States, China, and other regional powers. Nationalist industrial policies, strategic rivalry, and ideological distrust are fragmenting the institutions associated with globalization.
Before the Nation-State: Civilizations, World Orders, and the Origins of Global International Relations
| Amitav Acharya | Chinese Journal of International Politics | 2023
Surveys major world orders that existed before European global dominance. The article challenges the assumption that international hierarchy, diplomacy, and ideas of civilization originated exclusively in the modern Western nation-state system.
Global Civil Society in a Geopolitical Age
| Richard Youngs and contributors | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | November 30, 2022
Shows how competition among major powers increasingly affects civic organizations, democracy assistance, and political activism. Governments use funding, partnerships, restrictions, and narratives of sovereignty to extend influence beyond conventional military or economic diplomacy.
The Free World and Its Enemies
| Robert Kagan | Brookings Institution | November 4, 2022
Interprets Russia’s war and China’s growing power as challenges to the democratic international order. It argues that authoritarian great powers combine national ambition, regime security, and dissatisfaction with constraints imposed by Western-led institutions.
The Great Powers
| Paul Kennedy | Routledge | 2022 edition
Examines the political, military, economic, and technological foundations of great-power status. The historical studies show that international recognition depends on sustained capabilities rather than nationalist rhetoric alone.
The Status of Status in World Politics
| Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent | World Politics | 2021
Reviews arguments about whether rising powers become revisionist because their material interests are threatened or because they are denied recognition. The article assesses status as an explanation for international resentment, prestige competition, and conflict.
Status Matters in World Politics
| Elias Götz | International Studies Review | 2021
Reviews major approaches to international status and explains how prestige influences state behavior. Governments may seek recognition through military action, institutional leadership, economic development, symbolic projects, or association with established powers.
Who Wants to Be a Great Power?
| Lawrence Freedman | Joint Force Quarterly | June 11, 2020
Explains that great-power status carries obligations, risks, and expansive interests as well as prestige. Governments claiming such status often become involved in distant disputes because their credibility depends on demonstrating influence beyond their borders.
The Age of Great-Power Competition
| Elbridge A. Colby and A. Wess Mitchell | Foreign Affairs | 2019
Argues that international politics has shifted away from uncontested American predominance toward sustained competition among major powers. National resources, military alliances, industrial capacity, and regional influence have again become central measures of global status.
After Liberal World Order
| Constance Duncombe and Tim Dunne | International Affairs | 2018
Evaluates competing claims that the liberal international order is declining or transforming. Rising powers contest Western authority while still seeking recognition and influence within many institutions created under Western leadership.
Status and the Challenge of Rising Powers
| Steven Ward | Cambridge University Press | 2017
Argues that rising powers become dissatisfied when existing institutions deny them the status they believe they deserve. Whether established powers accommodate or stigmatize them can influence the likelihood of cooperation or revisionism.
The Myth of the Liberal Order
| Graham Allison | Foreign Affairs | June 16, 2014
Questions idealized portrayals of the postwar international system. The article emphasizes that great powers routinely created exceptions to international rules when those rules conflicted with perceived national interests.
The Return of Geopolitics
| Walter Russell Mead | Foreign Affairs | April 17, 2014
Argues that Russia, China, and Iran are challenging the geopolitical arrangements supported by the United States. These revisionist powers use nationalism, military pressure, and regional influence to resist an order they see as limiting their ambitions.
Status in World Politics
| T. V. Paul, Deborah Welch Larson, and William C. Wohlforth | Cambridge University Press | 2014
Presents status as a central motive in international relations. States compare themselves with peers and may pursue military, economic, diplomatic, or symbolic strategies to gain recognition of their preferred rank.
Great Powers and the Drive for Status in International Relations
| Thomas Volgy and contributors | Palgrave Macmillan | 2011
Explains great-power status as a combination of material capability, international recognition, and willingness to assume broad responsibilities. The desire to be acknowledged as a major power can shape diplomacy and intervention even when direct security interests are limited.
The Unipolar Illusion Revisited
| Christopher Layne | International Security | 2006
Predicts that American predominance will encourage other states to accumulate capabilities and seek strategic autonomy. Great-power status is relational, making resistance to a dominant state a recurring feature of international politics.
Power Shift
| David Shambaugh | Foreign Affairs | July 1, 2005
Describes China’s expanding diplomatic, economic, and strategic influence in Asia. Beijing seeks regional leadership partly through reassurance and trade, but its growing capabilities also raise fears of future domination.
The False Promise of International Institutions
| John J. Mearsheimer | International Security | 1994–1995
Argues that international institutions have limited ability to restrain powerful states when vital interests are involved. Competition, military capability, and fear remain central features of a system without a supreme global authority.
The Summoning
| Edward W. Said | Foreign Affairs | September 1, 1993
Criticizes the clash-of-civilizations thesis for turning diverse peoples into fixed and antagonistic blocs. Said warns that sweeping civilizational narratives can legitimize militarism, exclusion, and imperial intervention.
The Clash of Civilizations?
| Samuel P. Huntington | Foreign Affairs | Summer 1993
Predicts that cultural and civilizational identities would become major sources of international conflict after the Cold War. The thesis influenced nationalist leaders who portray geopolitical competition as a struggle among enduring civilizations.
Nationalism and the International Order
| James Mayall | Cambridge University Press | 1990
Explores the tension between universal principles of international society and nationalist claims to sovereignty. Self-determination can undermine empires, but it can also generate territorial disputes and exclusionary states.
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
| Paul Kennedy | Random House | 1987
Surveys major powers from the early modern period through the twentieth century. It argues that military commitments become unsustainable when imperial ambitions exceed the economic resources available to support them.
Russia and Eurasian Imperial Ambition
Russia Stakes Global Ambitions on Regional Dominance
| Alexander Cooley | Chatham House | March 27, 2025
Argues that Russia seeks recognition as a global power by maintaining dominance over neighboring states. Moscow presents its regional expansion as resistance to Western hegemony while denying nearby countries equal freedom to determine their political and security alignments.
The Rise of Authoritarian Civilizational Populism in Turkey, India, Russia, and China
| Ihsan Yilmaz and Nicholas Morieson | European Center for Populism Studies | April 14, 2024
Compares leaders who claim to defend ancient civilizations against Western liberalism and internal enemies. Civilizational nationalism supports demands for international recognition while helping governments centralize authority and marginalize minorities and political opponents.
Putin’s Imperial Aspirations: How Russian Nationalism Drives Foreign Policy and Military Strategy
| Christopher Akins | Harvard University | 2024
Analyzes how imperial history, Russian nationalism, and claims about civilizational unity influence Moscow’s foreign policy. It links the invasion of Ukraine to a wider effort to restore territorial control, strategic depth, and recognition as a dominant world power.
The Price of Empire: Unrest Location and Sovereign Risk in Tsarist Russia
| Christopher A. Hartwell and Paul M. Vaaler | SSRN and arXiv | September 13, 2023
Studies the financial costs of maintaining distant imperial territories in nineteenth-century Russia. Rebellion in peripheral regions increased sovereign risk because repression and military projection imposed costs that complicated the empire’s pursuit of power and prestige.
Putin Sees Himself as Part of the History of Russia’s Tsars—Including Their Imperialism
| Simon Sebag Montefiore | Time | October 3, 2022
Connects Vladimir Putin’s political worldview to Russian rulers who expanded territory and centralized power. Historical references to Peter the Great and other tsars help legitimize present-day claims that expansion restores rather than conquers supposedly Russian lands.
Russia’s War in Ukraine: Identity, History, and Conflict
| Jeffrey Mankoff | Center for Strategic and International Studies | April 22, 2022
Explains how conflicting interpretations of Russian and Ukrainian history contributed to war. Moscow’s denial of a separate Ukrainian nation supports an imperial conception of Russia whose security and greatness supposedly require political authority over neighboring peoples.
The Return of the Russian Leviathan
| Sergei Medvedev | Foreign Affairs | May 17, 2021
Explores the revival of centralized state power, militarism, and imperial memory in contemporary Russia. National greatness is presented as compensation for economic stagnation and political exclusion, making confrontation with external enemies useful to the governing system.
Four Myths About Russian Grand Strategy
| Jeffrey Mankoff | Center for Strategic and International Studies | September 22, 2020
Challenges assumptions that Russian policy follows either a flawless master plan or purely opportunistic decisions. It emphasizes enduring priorities such as regional influence, regime security, strategic depth, and recognition as a major global actor.
The Limits of Russian Integration in Eurasia
Evaluates Russia’s attempt to construct a privileged sphere of influence through the Eurasian Economic Union and other regional institutions. Moscow’s ambitions face resistance from states that want economic cooperation without surrendering sovereignty.
Russia’s Global Ambitions in Perspective
| Eugene Rumer | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | February 20, 2019
Traces Russia’s pursuit of great-power recognition across imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet history. Territorial expansion both established Russia’s power and created a continuing belief that geographic control is necessary for security and international status.
The Roots of Russian Conduct
| Robert Person and Michael McFaul | Foreign Affairs | August 14, 2017
Attributes Russian confrontation with the West partly to domestic authoritarianism rather than unavoidable national interests. The Kremlin uses external threats and claims of great-power entitlement to reinforce political control.
Russia’s Post-Soviet Journey
| Dmitri Trenin | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | December 25, 2016
Reviews Russia’s struggle to define its identity and position after the Soviet collapse. Moscow’s unwillingness to accept a subordinate place in Europe contributed to renewed great-power ambitions and confrontation with Western institutions.
The Sources of Russian Conduct
| Thomas Graham | Foreign Affairs | August 18, 2016
Connects Russian foreign policy to historical insecurity, geographic exposure, centralized authority, and the pursuit of status. It cautions against explanations based solely on Putin’s personality or communist ideology.
Putin’s World
| Fiona Hill | Foreign Affairs | June 14, 2016
Explores how Putin interprets history, sovereignty, and the international balance of power. Russia seeks recognition as an indispensable actor capable of negotiating with other major powers over the political future of smaller states.
Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics
| Stephen Kotkin | Foreign Affairs | April 18, 2016
Explains recurring tensions between Russia’s limited economic capabilities and its expansive security ambitions. Geography, centralized government, and the desire for equal standing with stronger powers repeatedly encourage territorial expansion.
Russia’s Spheres of Interest, Not Influence
| Steven Pifer | Brookings Institution | July 30, 2014
Distinguishes ordinary diplomatic influence from claims that neighboring states fall within Russia’s exclusive sphere. It argues that such claims subordinate the sovereignty of smaller countries to Moscow’s conception of security and status.
The Putin Doctrine
| Leon Aron | Foreign Affairs | August 12, 2013
Describes a foreign policy aimed at restoring Russian influence and resisting Western political models. National dignity, sovereignty, and protection of Russian-speaking populations provide ideological support for regional intervention.
The Long Goodbye: Waning Russian Influence in the South Caucasus and Central Asia
| James Nixey | Chatham House | June 2012
Examines Russia’s attempt to preserve dominance in regions once ruled by the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Post-imperial ambition persists even as local governments diversify their economic and security relationships.
Eurasian Integration: A Super-Continental Opportunity for Russia
| Johannes Linn | Brookings Institution | November 24, 2006
Discusses economic and infrastructure integration across Eurasia. Such cooperation could produce shared development, but it also creates opportunities for Russia and China to compete for leadership over trade routes and energy networks.
Turkey and Russia: Axis of the Excluded?
| Fiona Hill and Ömer Taşpınar | Survival | 2006
Compares Russia and Turkey as former imperial centers seeking recognition and respect from Europe. Feelings of exclusion encourage both countries to revive imperial traditions and pursue more independent regional policies.
The Sources of Soviet Conduct
| George F. Kennan | Foreign Affairs | July 1, 1947
Interprets Soviet foreign policy as a combination of Marxist ideology, Russian insecurity, and centralized power. The article shaped containment by portraying Moscow’s international expansion as persistent but responsive to organized resistance.
China, East Asia, and National Rejuvenation
Kishida’s “Realism” Diplomacy: From the Yoshida Doctrine to Values-Based Diplomacy
| Yuki Tatsumi | Center for Strategic and International Studies | June 8, 2023
Explains Japan’s movement toward a more assertive defense and diplomatic posture as regional threats increase. The analysis illustrates how a wealthy state can seek greater strategic influence while debating the limits created by pacifism and memories of imperial expansion.
China’s Digital Silk Road
| Jonathan E. Hillman | Center for Strategic and International Studies | February 5, 2019
Examines China’s export of telecommunications networks, surveillance technologies, and digital infrastructure. These projects extend commercial influence while supporting Beijing’s ambition to shape technical standards and become a leading technological power.
China’s Vision of Victory
| Jonathan D. T. Ward | National Bureau of Asian Research | 2019
Describes China’s ambition to regain a central position in the international system through economic, military, technological, and ideological power. It interprets national rejuvenation as a long-term effort to overcome the legacy of foreign domination.
Belt and Road: Colonialism With Chinese Characteristics?
| David Brewster | Lowy Institute | September 12, 2018
Considers whether Belt and Road projects reproduce imperial relationships through debt, infrastructure control, and strategic access. It distinguishes ordinary commercial activity from arrangements that create lasting political dependence.
The US–Chinese Power Shift and the End of the Pax Americana
| Christopher Layne | International Affairs | 2018
Analyzes China’s rise and the relative decline of American dominance. The article predicts that power transition will intensify strategic competition because Beijing seeks greater influence while Washington attempts to preserve its privileged position.
China’s Imperial Overreach
| Susan L. Shirk | Foreign Affairs | October 23, 2017
Warns that excessive centralization, assertive nationalism, and pressure on neighboring states could undermine China’s peaceful rise. Policies designed to demonstrate strength may provoke balancing coalitions and damage the international environment needed for development.
China’s New Imperial President
| Elizabeth C. Economy | Foreign Affairs | April 17, 2017
Examines Xi Jinping’s centralization of political authority and expansive vision of Chinese leadership. Domestic repression, military modernization, and ambitious foreign initiatives are presented as interconnected elements of national rejuvenation.
Japan’s New Nationalism
| Tobias Harris | Foreign Affairs | September 19, 2016
Discusses conservative efforts to revise Japan’s postwar identity, strengthen the military, and promote a more favorable interpretation of imperial history. These changes are driven by security concerns but create friction with countries that experienced Japanese occupation.
China’s Quest for Great Power
| Bernard D. Cole | Routledge | 2016
Examines naval modernization, energy security, and maritime strategy as components of China’s expanding influence. Control of sea routes and territorial claims is closely connected to Beijing’s understanding of great-power status.
The Persistence of the Japanese Past
| Andrew J. Nathan | Foreign Affairs | April 20, 2015
Reviews debates over historical memory in Japan and East Asia. Conflicts about wartime responsibility affect present-day nationalism, alliance politics, and Japan’s effort to play a larger regional security role.
Why China Will Not Rule the World
| Michael Beckley | Foreign Affairs | December 12, 2011
Challenges projections that China will inevitably surpass the United States. It compares national capabilities and argues that economic size alone does not guarantee technological, military, or geopolitical supremacy.
The Rise of China and the Future of the West
| G. John Ikenberry | Foreign Affairs | January 1, 2008
Argues that China’s rise does not necessarily require the destruction of the existing international order. Strong and accessible institutions could integrate Beijing while granting it greater status and decision-making influence.
China’s “Peaceful Rise” to Great-Power Status
| Zheng Bijian | Foreign Affairs | September 1, 2005
Presents the official argument that China can achieve great-power status through development and international cooperation rather than conquest. The essay frames modernization as national rejuvenation while attempting to reassure other countries about Beijing’s intentions.
China’s New Nationalism
| Peter Hays Gries | Foreign Affairs | November 1, 2003
Examines popular nationalism shaped by memories of foreign humiliation and resentment toward Japan and the United States. Public opinion can strengthen government legitimacy while limiting leaders’ flexibility during international disputes.
China’s Search for Security
| Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell | Foreign Affairs | 2003
Explains how Chinese leaders understand external threats, territorial integrity, and regime survival. Historical experiences of invasion and humiliation contribute to security policies designed to restore China’s power and prevent dependence on foreign states.
China’s Nationalist Heritage
| John Fitzgerald | Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs | 1990
Studies the historical relationship between Chinese nationalism, state-building, and political legitimacy. Competing movements claimed authority by promising to restore unity, sovereignty, and China’s place among major powers.
India and South Asian Great-Power Aspirations
India’s New Nationalism
| Arvind Subramanian | Foreign Affairs | September 17, 2020
Examines the relationship between Hindu nationalism, economic policy, and India’s international ambitions. The article considers whether majoritarian politics strengthens national cohesion or weakens the institutions and economic capabilities needed for genuine great-power influence.
Hindu Nationalism and the New Jim Crow
| Ashutosh Varshney | Journal of Democracy | July 2017
Assesses pressures on India’s secular and pluralist constitutional order. Majoritarian nationalism may consolidate political support, but it risks redefining citizenship and national belonging around the dominant religious community.
India as a Great Power
| Ashley J. Tellis | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | April 4, 2016
Evaluates the economic, military, institutional, and diplomatic foundations of India’s international influence. It argues that India must strengthen internal capabilities rather than rely primarily on civilizational history or demographic size.
Modi’s India
| Alyssa Ayres | Foreign Affairs | May 18, 2015
Examines India’s effort to combine economic development, Hindu nationalist politics, and a more active foreign policy. Narendra Modi’s diplomacy seeks investment and recognition while promoting India as a restored civilizational power.
India’s Path to Power
| Sunil Khilnani | Foreign Affairs | July 1, 2006
Discusses India’s emergence as a major power through economic reform, democracy, nuclear capability, and strategic autonomy. National pluralism is presented as a possible source of legitimacy and influence rather than an obstacle to strength.
Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Making of the Indian Capitalist Class
| Aditya Mukherjee | Modern Asian Studies | 2002
Investigates the relationship between colonial rule, Indian nationalism, and the development of domestic capitalist interests. Anti-imperial movements sought national economic autonomy as well as formal political independence.
Turkey, Iran, and Middle Eastern Regional Power
The Dual Imperative in Turkish Foreign Policy: Right-Wing Populists and Their Opposition
| Murat Somer | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | June 26, 2026
Examines how Turkey’s governing populists combine ambitions for greater international influence with an authoritarian domestic project. It distinguishes broadly shared aspirations for strategic autonomy from the government’s ideological use of nationalism and foreign policy.
Turkey Goes to Africa
| Federico Donelli | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | May 2022
Examines Turkey’s expanding diplomatic, commercial, humanitarian, and military presence in Africa. Ankara presents itself as an anti-colonial partner while also competing for markets, strategic access, and recognition as a global actor.
Turkey’s Grand Strategy and the Great Powers
| Şener Aktürk | Insight Turkey | 2021
Discusses Turkey’s efforts to maintain autonomy while navigating relations with the United States, Russia, China, and Europe. Its strategy combines alliance membership with regional military activism and demands for recognition as an independent center of power.
The Ambitious United Arab Emirates
| Cinzia Bianco | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | July 2020
Describes how a relatively small state uses wealth, military deployments, ports, technology, and diplomacy to gain influence beyond its size. The UAE illustrates how status seeking is not limited to traditional great powers.
Saudi Arabia’s Quest for Regional Dominance
| F. Gregory Gause III | Foreign Affairs | April 3, 2018
Examines Saudi efforts to counter Iran and lead the Arab world through military intervention, economic pressure, and alliance building. Ambitious policies have often produced costly conflicts without establishing stable regional hegemony.
Iran’s Quest for Regional Hegemony
| Suzanne Maloney | Brookings Institution | 2017
Examines Iran’s use of military partnerships, ideological networks, and asymmetric capabilities to shape the Middle East. Tehran describes its actions as resistance while opponents view them as an effort to establish regional domination.
The Ottoman Empire’s Long Shadow
| Soner Cagaptay | Foreign Affairs | May 26, 2015
Explores how memories of Ottoman rule influence Turkey’s identity and foreign relations. Competing interpretations of the imperial past shape debates over secularism, Islam, relations with Europe, and leadership in former Ottoman regions.
Iran’s Imperial Foreign Policy
| Ray Takeyh | Foreign Affairs | February 9, 2015
Argues that Iran combines revolutionary ideology with older aspirations for regional primacy. Support for allied governments and armed movements extends Tehran’s influence while increasing rivalry with neighboring powers.
Turkey’s Imperial Fantasy
| Behlül Özkan | Foreign Affairs | August 25, 2014
Criticizes neo-Ottoman ideas that portray Turkey as the natural leader of territories once governed by the Ottoman Empire. Historical nostalgia encouraged overconfidence about Ankara’s ability to shape political outcomes across the Middle East.
The Three Strategic Visions of Turkey
| Ömer Taşpınar | Brookings Institution | March 8, 2011
Identifies competing Kemalist, neo-Ottoman, and Turkish nationalist visions of foreign policy. Each proposes a different route to strategic autonomy, regional leadership, and restoration of national prestige.
The United States, Liberal Order, and American Empire
The US-Led Liberal Order: Imperialism by Another Name?
| Inderjeet Parmar | International Affairs | 2018
Critiques the idea that the postwar international order was consistently liberal or egalitarian. It argues that American leadership has relied on economic hierarchy, elite networks, military power, and interventions that can be understood as informal imperialism.
American Empire
| Niall Ferguson | Harvard University Press | 2004
Compares the United States with earlier imperial powers and argues that it exercises many imperial functions despite rejecting the label. The analysis emphasizes military reach, economic institutions, and attempts to shape foreign governments.
The Case for American Empire
| Max Boot | Foreign Affairs | March 1, 2002
Openly argues that American power could be used to impose stability and political reform abroad. The essay illustrates how humanitarian and security claims can be combined with unapologetic support for imperial authority.
The Unipolar Moment
| Charles Krauthammer | Foreign Affairs | 1990
Describes the concentration of global power in the United States after the Soviet decline. It presents American leadership as uniquely capable of organizing world order, illustrating how claims of national exceptionalism can justify extensive international authority.
The Imperial Presidency Returns
| Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. | Foreign Affairs | 1973
Examines the growth of executive authority over war and foreign policy in the United States. Expansive claims of national security and global responsibility enabled presidents to act with limited legislative oversight.
Manifest Destiny
| Albert K. Weinberg | Johns Hopkins University Press | 1935
Studies the ideology that portrayed American continental expansion as inevitable and morally justified. Religious mission, racial hierarchy, security, and economic opportunity were combined into a powerful nationalist argument for conquest.
The Territorial Expansion of the United States
| Frederick Jackson Turner | American Historical Review | 1904
Interprets territorial expansion as a defining influence on American political development. The work is also a primary source for understanding how expansion was normalized within narratives of national progress.
Europe, Post-Imperial Identity, and Strategic Autonomy
Gaullism Resurgent
| Charles A. Kupchan | Foreign Affairs | November 14, 2019
Examines renewed French interest in European strategic autonomy. The policy draws on Charles de Gaulle’s belief that France and Europe should act independently of both the United States and rival powers.
Brexit and Empire
| Sally Tomlinson and Danny Dorling | Journal of Historical Geography | 2019
Connects support for Brexit with memories of British imperial greatness and exceptionalism. Nostalgic narratives encouraged beliefs that the country could regain global influence outside European institutions.
France’s Search for Grandeur
| Philip H. Gordon | Foreign Affairs | August 14, 2017
Traces France’s continuing pursuit of strategic autonomy and global influence. Nuclear weapons, overseas territories, military interventions, and leadership within Europe sustain its claim to great-power status.
Global Britain: The Responsibility to Lead
| James Rogers | Henry Jackson Society | 2017
Advocates a more ambitious British military and diplomatic role after Brexit. The report illustrates how supporters of renewed national influence combine maritime history, alliances, and overseas engagement into a modern great-power narrative.
Britain’s Place in the World
| Michael Harvey | Chatham House | December 2011
Investigates British beliefs about continuing great-power status after imperial decline. Nuclear weapons, a permanent Security Council seat, military traditions, and memories of empire sustain ambitions that may exceed available resources.
Germany’s New Role in Europe
| Ulrich Speck | Foreign Affairs | June 16, 2011
Examines Germany’s growing political and economic influence within Europe. Its historical experience makes overt nationalist leadership controversial, encouraging Berlin to pursue power through European institutions rather than imperial rhetoric.
Emerging and Regional Powers
Indonesia’s Ascent
| Aaron L. Connelly | Foreign Affairs | December 10, 2018
Considers Indonesia’s potential to become a more influential regional and global power. Its population and economy provide major advantages, but nationalism, institutional weakness, and reluctance to assume international burdens limit its role.
South Africa’s Ambiguous Pursuit of Status
| Maxi Schoeman | International Affairs | 2018
Examines South Africa’s attempt to act simultaneously as an African representative, a developing-country leader, and a globally influential state. These roles sometimes conflict with regional expectations and domestic constraints.
Ethiopia’s Quest for Regional Power
| Jason Mosley | Chatham House | April 2015
Examines Ethiopia’s military, diplomatic, and economic influence in the Horn of Africa. Developmental nationalism and memories of independent statehood support ambitions for regional leadership, though internal conflict weakens that project.
Brazil as an Emerging Power
| Harold Trinkunas | Brookings Institution | 2014
Assesses Brazil’s international aspirations and the domestic capabilities needed to sustain them. Economic growth and regional size created opportunities, but institutional and fiscal limitations constrained its global influence.
Brazil’s Quest for Great-Power Status
| Sean W. Burges | International Politics | 2008
Analyzes Brazil’s effort to gain recognition through diplomacy, regional leadership, peacekeeping, and demands for institutional reform. Brazil generally sought status without the territorial expansion associated with traditional imperial powers.
Historical Imperialism, Political Economy, and Culture
Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century
| John Bellamy Foster | Monthly Review | November 1, 2015
Examines modern imperialism through global capitalism, military power, unequal exchange, and control over resources. It argues that formal colonial rule has often been replaced by economic and political structures that preserve hierarchy among states.
Empire and Nation
| Frederick Cooper | American Historical Review | April 2006
Challenges the assumption that empires naturally gave way to nation-states. Political actors debated federations, imperial citizenship, and layered sovereignty before territorial nationhood became the dominant postcolonial model.
The New Imperialism
| David Harvey | Socialist Register | 2004
Explores the relationship between capitalist accumulation and territorial power. Governments may use military intervention and geopolitical control to open markets, protect investments, and manage economic crises.
The New Imperialism: Accumulation by Dispossession
| David Harvey | Socialist Register | 2004
Describes privatization, financial control, resource extraction, and forced market opening as modern forms of dispossession. These economic processes interact with state power and geopolitical competition.
Against Empire
| Michael Parenti | City Lights Books | 1995
Critiques military intervention, economic domination, and ideological narratives used to justify American power abroad. It argues that imperial policies primarily benefit political and economic elites rather than ordinary citizens.
Culture and Imperialism
| Edward W. Said | Vintage Books | 1993
Examines how literature and culture represented imperial conquest as natural, civilizing, or heroic. National culture can resist foreign rule, but it can also obscure the violence and exploitation underlying great-power expansion.
Jingoism and the New Imperialism
| John M. MacKenzie | Victorian Studies | 1984
Examines popular enthusiasm for British imperial expansion and military power. Newspapers, entertainment, education, and patriotic organizations helped turn empire into a source of mass national identity.
Nationalism, Imperialism, and Identity in Late Victorian Culture
| John M. MacKenzie | Manchester University Press | 1984
Shows how cultural propaganda made imperialism part of everyday British life. Exhibitions, schoolbooks, advertising, and popular entertainment taught citizens to associate national greatness with overseas domination.
The Great Game, 1856–1907
| Edward Ingram | International History Review | 1980
Studies Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia. Strategic competition transformed frontier regions into buffers and battlegrounds whose peoples were subordinated to imperial calculations about security and prestige.
The Case Against the Concept of Imperialism
| Benjamin J. Cohen | International Organization | 1973
Questions whether imperialism is defined precisely enough to explain international economic and political relationships. It encourages distinctions among direct territorial rule, economic dependency, military domination, and unequal influence.
Social Imperialism
| Hans-Ulrich Wehler | Past & Present | 1970
Develops the concept of social imperialism, in which ruling elites use expansionist foreign policy to divert attention from domestic conflict. National prestige and external enemies can strengthen governments facing social or political instability.
The Imperialism of Free Trade
| John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson | Economic History Review | 1953
Argues that nineteenth-century Britain often preferred informal economic influence to expensive formal colonization. Direct annexation was used when local resistance or strategic competition threatened access to markets and trade routes.
Nationalism and Imperialism in the Hither East
| Lothrop Stoddard | Charles Scribner’s Sons | 1922
Presents an early and deeply racialized interpretation of nationalism, empire, and anti-colonial movements. It is useful as a primary source illustrating how imperial thinkers used racial hierarchy to interpret political change.
Economic Imperialism
| Leonard Woolf | Political Science Quarterly | 1920
Examines how economic interests and investment can support imperial expansion. The analysis helps explain why national prestige and commercial advantage were frequently intertwined in the foreign policies of industrial powers.
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
| Vladimir Ilyich Lenin | Marxists Internet Archive | 1916
Argues that monopoly capitalism, finance, and competition for colonies drive imperial expansion. Although written during the First World War, it remains influential in debates over whether great-power rivalry is rooted in nationalism, economics, or both.
