Earlylands in Conversation - Episode 18 - Professor Michael Beckley on the Changing Face of Great Power Competition

The release earlier this month of the Trump administration's new National Security Strategy vividly captures the tectonic shifts that are occurring in global affairs. For many observers of the international order, it can feel as if there is no framework or structure to the chaotic period in which we are living. If that opinion resonates with you, then today's guest may be able to offer an analytic lens through which to understand our present state of affairs.

Professor Michael Beckley published in the November/December 2025 issue of Foreign Affairs a feature article entitled "The Stagnant Order." In this thoughtful and deeply researched piece, Professor Beckley argues that the “era of power transitions is ending. For the first time in centuries, no country is rising fast enough to overturn the global balance.” Yet while he argues that the likelihood of a global conflict like last century’s world wars is receding, “The age of rising powers is ending, but its immediate aftermath may prove no less violent.”

Michael Beckley is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University and a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His research on great power competition has received numerous scholarly awards and been featured in a wide variety of leading media outlets. In addition to numerous articles and essays, he is also the author of Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower (2018) and Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict With China (2022).

Articles and Books Referenced in the Episode

"The Stagnant Order" - Foreign AffairsThe Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Paul Kennedy

The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert Gordon

Why the West Rules - For Now by Ian Morris

The Global Transformation - History, Modernity, and the Making of International Relations by Barry Buzan and George Lawson