Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 9, 2021

Structural Power and the Evolution of the International System in Global Value Chains

(Abstract)

Pang Xun and He Qingqian

Structural power emerges from the deep structure of the value-added global value chains. At the economic level, the circumstances of its distribution and changing trends in structural power reflect the major characteristics and evolutionary dynamics of the international situation. On the basis of UNCTAD cross-country input-output tabular data, we measured and analyzed structural power, and found that global value chains exhibit an international pattern of “multi-polarity” and “multi-polarization.” This is manifest in the dispersion of structural power among the major powers, in which China’s rapid rise and Germany’s continued preeminence highlight the steady decline of American hegemony. The overall patterns and changes in the international situation can be summed up as a tendency toward a highly hierarchical “center-periphery” structure and a situation in which “the East rises as the West declines.” The trend for countries on the periphery of the system to become further marginalized deserves particular attention. To tackle the global challenges posed by the return of geopolitics and the upsurge of populism, avoiding using structural power as a new weapon in international conflict and adopting it as a positive force to shape structures and expand the limits of possibilities is of great significance for stabilizing the international system and building a new type of international relations.