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⁷⁸ Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics. This is so even when asymmetric bargains take the form of constitutional orders. Ikenberry, After Victory, pp. 47–8.

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⁹² Nexon and Wright, ‘What's at stake in the American empire debate’, pp. 260–2.

⁹³ Hafner-Burton, Kahler, and Montgomery, ‘Network analysis for international relations’. All three dynamics manifest in the ‘hub-and-spoke’ architecture of US alliances in Asia during the Cold War. See Cha, Victor, Powerplay: The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ Nexon and Wright, ‘What's at stake in the American empire debate’, pp. 262–5.

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⁹⁷ Zhongping and Jing, ‘China's strategic partnership diplomacy’, p. 13.

⁹⁸ Reeves, Chinese Foreign Relations with Weak Peripheral States, pp. 27–8.

⁹⁹ Zhongping and Jing, ‘China's strategic partnership diplomacy’, pp. 12–16; Reeves, China's Foreign Relations with Weak Peripheral States.

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¹⁰⁴ Nexon and Wright, ‘What's at stake in the American empire debate’.

¹⁰⁵ ‘China not seeking “sphere of influence” in the Pacific, Xi Says’, Reuters (29 May 2019).

¹⁰⁶ Reeves, Chinese Foreign Relations with Weak Peripheral States.

¹⁰⁷ Alexander Bowe, ‘China's Overseas United Front Work: Background and Implications for the United States’, a report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (24 August 2018).

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