This article investigates the role of status considerations in the response of dominant powers to the rise of emergent states. Accordingly, the hypothesis explored is that dominant actors are prone to fear that they will lose their upper rank, and, due to this status anxiety, resist the efforts of emergent powers to match or surpass them. The article begins by explaining why political actors deem status important and puts forward a theory of status anxiety in world politics. The more pronounced is this anxiety across status dimensions (economic and military capabilities as well as prestige), the higher the likelihood of conflict. This argument is then tested against competing theories of dominant power behaviour in two cases: the relations between France and Britain from the 1740s to Napoleon and those between Britain and Germany from the 1880s to World War One.

This paper tests the explanatory power of the main strands of neoclassical realism in accounting for US foreign policy after the Cold War. According to the emphasis they place on the relevance of structural versus non-structural variables in foreign policy making, three schools can be identified. The first school restricts the role of non-structural factors to accounting for anomalous behavior; the second school argues that non-structural variables should also be included in order to understand the policy’s timing and style, and, in times of security plenty, its content; while the third school contends that it is international structural factors, i.e. a state’s strategic interactions with other polities, that shape most foreign policy. Following the test of their forecasts versus the historical record, the third school emerges as providing the most accurate account and as the most promising avenue of research for neoclassical realism.

This forum presents a snapshot of the current state of neoclassical realist theorizing. Its contributors are self-identified neoclassical realists who delineate their version of neoclassical realism (NCR), its scope, object of analysis, and theoretical contribution. From the standpoint of NCR, they contribute to and reflect on the “end of IR theory” debate. NCR has come under criticism for its supposed lack of theoretical structure and alleged disregard for paradigmatic boundaries. This raises questions as to the nature of this (theoretical) beast. Is NCR a midrange, progressive research program? Can it formulate a grand theory informed by metatheoretical assumptions? Is it a reformulation of neorealism or classical realism or an eclectic mix of different paradigms? The forum contributors argue that NCR, in different variants, holds considerable promise to investigate foreign policy, grand strategy and international politics. They interrogate the interaction of international and domestic politics and consider normative implications as well as the sources and cases of NCR beyond the West. In so doing, they speak to theorizing and the utility of the theoretical enterprise in IR more generally.

I am just so amazed that there is so much misunderstanding of what our country is about, that people would hate us….like most Americans, I just can't believe it, because I know how good we are.-George W. BushThe ancient tale of Damocles conveys a lesson often overlooked in the conduct of present-day international affairs-a lesson that warrants heeding especially now, given the global euphoria attending the transfer of power in Washington from the much-loathed George W. Bush to the much-loved Barack Obama. The lesson is this: that great power cannot fail but to bring grave danger to its possessor. As Damocles learned the hard way, great power fails to bring perpetual and blissful security and peace to the one yielding it. A more frequent and far more disturbing by-product of great power is the constant and unavoidable danger of being the target of choice for the hostility of those less well endowed. Rather than constituting a blessing, great power comes with the terrible curse of never-ending enmity.As the Romans, the Britons, and now the Americans have found out time and again, any variety of pax, be it Romana, Britannica, or Americana,