More than thirty years after the proclaimed “end of history”, the world is marked by a growing multipolarity and diversity in political regime types. States that differ along the latter dimension increasingly view each other as natural competitors, seek to prove the superiority of their own political and economic systems and to win the alle¬giance of third countries. We argue that these dynamics are best understood as a process of “regime competition”, which covers both competition over international influence or even hegemony between powerful states, and over the performance of their respective systems of governance. This competition has significant implications for peace and conflict dynamics across the global, regional and intrastate levels, most notably in the form of rising tensions between regimes that consider each other as antagonistic.
This panel is designed to explore current dynamics of regime competition, focusing especially on cases where its hegemonic and performative dimensions overlap. It provides a novel analytical framework for studying these processes, and a range of empirical studies covering how they affect different world regions and global problems, with a specific view towards peace and conflict outcomes.