The United States and China in Power Transition - Strategic Studies ...

However, British power gradually declined. In
the latter part of the 19th century, the United States
and Germany rapidly rose up, following their internal
consolidation (the U.S. Civil War and German Unification,
respectively) and economic development. By
the time World War I broke out in 1914, Great Britain
did not have the capacity to dictate peace and stability
in the international system.
At the conclusion of World War I, the United States
became a powerful nation in the world (the “spike”
of U.S. power in Figure 2-3 is largely the result of
U.S. military spending reaching an all-time height; it
dropped down right after the war; taking that as an
outlier, the overall U.S. power was registered in the
chart). President Woodrow Wilson believed that the
time had come for the United States to lead the world.
Through his famous “Fourteen Points,” Wilson put
forward a plan to construct a new world order. Unfortunately,
the European powers were skeptical of
Wilson’s vision, and the American people were not
prepared to follow the President and accomplish his
mission. The U.S. Congress did not endorse the President’s
plan. The United States shied away from world
leadership and retreated to isolation.
Without a dominant power and strong leadership,
the world of great powers remained in a state of turmoil
during the 1920s and 1930s. Shifts of power set
the stage for another great power conflict. The Great
Depression added a severe blow to this chaotic situation.
Germany, in the meantime, recovered from its
defeat and gathered strength to make another attempt
to gain control of the international system. The great
power struggle eventually led to the outbreak of
World War II.
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