The Palgrave Geopolitical Handbook: Alliance Politics in Great Power Competition is a thorough and authoritative guide to the pivotal role of alliances in the twenty-first-century US-China rivalry.

This book surveys, both theoretically and empirically, the major formal and informal alliances under the respective leadership of the United States and China. It illustrates how contemporary alliance politics has transformed twenty-first-century great power competition from a two-player game between two global powers (the United States and China) into a multi-player game involving a range of regional powers (such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, and India in Asia, and the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in Europe) as well as smaller states (such as the Philippines and Thailand in Asia, and the Baltic states in Europe). In doing so, the book guides readers to understand and interpret twenty-first-century great power competition by looking beyond just the “great powers”.

Brian C.H. Fong (College of Social Sciences, National Sun-Yat-Sen University, Taiwan