Major Powers Rivalries: Analysis of War (Choice or Compulsion)

Abstract

History is consistent with a pattern of the rise and fall of great empires that have dominated the international landscape, but the last five hundred years have simplified an irrefutable arrangement of the rise and fall of great empires. This study explores the rise of China in a historical context and vindicates the hypothetical and theoretical probability of war by using the Thucydides trap in the transition of power from an existing superpower to emerging power. Our results explore that war between the great powers is not a trap created by structural stresses of the international anarchic system, so war is a rational choice for pursuing the strategic goal.