Description
How and why do rising powers come into conflict with established major powers? If it is revisionism, what does this consist of, and how might this discriminate peaceful from conflictual rises? I argue that an overlooked form of revisionism is the monopolization of subordinate states. When a rising power seeks to monopolize a subordinate, it infringes on the material interests of other major powers and challenges norms of open subordinate governance. This behavior is perceived as revisionist, positioning the rising power as a challenger to the status quo international order and increasing the risk of conflict. This argument is evaluated through a quantitative examination of rising power disputes from 1816 to 2010, alongside comparative case studies of the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars. The theory contributes to existing scholarship by providing a novel understanding of revisionism, differentiating between revisionist and non-revisionist rising powers through their hierarchical relations with subordinates, and offers insights into the contemporary rises of China and India, both of which appear to be monopolizing subordinate states.
