%0 Journal Article
%T ¡®Rise of the rest¡¯: As hype and reality
%A Ay£¿e Zarakol
%J International Relations
%@ 1741-2862
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0047117819840793
%X The past decade has been characterised (among other things) by the emergence of a discourse about the ¡®Rise of the Rest¡¯. (Some) non-Western states have been described as ¡®rising powers¡¯ capable of agency in the international system and as potential partners for the West in global governance. This stands in contrast to a more traditional narrative that saw the non-West primarily as a source of international problems and a developmental project. Does this discursive shift signify a historic reversal in how the non-West understood by the West? The answer is complicated. In this article, I argue that the hype about ¡®rising powers¡¯ in Western policy circles following the Global Financial Crisis of 2007¨C2008 had little relation to an ¡®objective¡¯ analysis of actual structural shifts in favour of ¡®the Rest¡¯ and was more akin to a financial bubble, with speculation driving perceptions of ¡®rising powers¡¯. I also show that the ¡®rising powers¡¯ literature is better located within the broader (and long-standing) debate about the decline of the United States, and should be read more as a manifestation of American anxieties and hopes than as informing us about the choices or the motivations of the ¡®rising powers¡¯. Ironically, however, the Western hype nevertheless has helped along a structural shift that is under way, first by partly moulding reality in that direction (especially in the form of financial decisions), but more importantly by freeing non-Western powers (for better or worse) from their internalised cages of perceived inferiority and lack of agency in the modern international order
%K BRICs
%K foreign policy hype
%K rising powers
%K rise of the rest
%K stigma
%K US decline
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0047117819840793