Regional Powers and Security Orders: A Theoretical Framework by Robert Stewart-Ingersoll and Derrick Frazier

Following the retreat of the global powers after the end of the Cold War, with the possible exception of the United States, the regional power structure has become increasingly important for understanding the international security dynamics of today. The present book provides a new theoretical framework for identifying and understanding the role of the regional powers in creating, maintaining and possibly breaking down the regional security orders as well as the regions’ relationship with the broader global system. Robert Stewart-Ingersoll and Derrick Frazier term this analytical framework the Regional Powers and Security Framework (RPSF), and contend that this framework offers the most systematic approach for this analysis. Understanding who these regional powers are and how they influence their regions and international security are thus important for understanding the present-day regional security patterns as well as for developing strategies for interacting with such regions. The authors in this book argue that some regional powers, ‘due to both their substantial relative capabilities and their unique behaviours disproportionately influence security’ within their regional security complexes (RSCs) (p. 1).