CGPC: Research
Our research explores and critiques the dynamics of power competition between states. Bringing together perspectives from international relations, law, business, and economics, we seek to understand the scope and domains of intensifying inter-state competition, examine how methods of power analysis measure and construct that competition, and analyse the strategies states adopt under conditions of power competition.
Research Projects
Doctoral study
If you're interested in doctoral study in any of the disciplinary areas covered by CGPC, please contact us at cgpc@surrey.ac.uk.
Expert support
I'm interested in the strategies of great powers in decline. CGPC looks at how others respond in that period, when power politics becomes the pre-eminent mode of international conduct. It's a great place to be researching the dynamics of contemporary international relations.
Postgraduate Research
Reversing Course: Explaining Obama's Rapprochements
By Ellis Mallett
Biography
Reversing Course: Explaining Obama's Rapprochements
Why do foreign policies endure in conditions that should impel change? By persisting with particular strategies, states risk mounting responses disproportionate relative to the threat and overcommitting resources to situations that seldom warrant it. In adopting such an ‘overbalanced’ posture, states might also become entangled in unnecessary conflict, causing for themselves greater insecurity by worsening the original threat, increasing the risk of spiral dynamics, and fostering further instability.