Coopetition framework: the co-existence of competition and cooperation in the age of US-China rivalry

In the current era of US-China rivalry, a major theme in international relations scholarship is the study of how Washington is aligning its allies and partners to compete against Beijing. Yet, within this bourgeoning ‘competition-oriented literature,’ we are now witnessing a growing co-existence of competition with cooperation: On the one hand, US allies and partners are aligning with Washington to compete with China; On the other hand, US allies and partners are seeking cooperation against China. What drives this emerging trend of ‘coopetition’? Armed with a novel theoretical framework, this special issue demonstrates that the contemporary patterns of coopetition result from a complex interplay of system- and unit-level forces: while system-level forces dispose US allies and partners to maintain alignment with Washington, unit-level forces drive them to chart their own balance of cooperation and competition with Beijing. Theorising the twenty-first century global politics as a multi-faceted phenomenon, this special issue seeks to re-orient scholarly attention from one-dimensional conception of competition to co-existence of cooperation and competition.