There are parallels between the historical lessons of World War I and the current era of hegemonic transition, with China's 10 years old proposal of the "New Type of Great Power Relations" still offering a framework for navigating U.S.-China relations. Ultimately, strategic dialogue and cooperation between great powers is of utmost importance to avert great power conflicts.

The island nation’s Maori traditions help it navigate alliances and multilateral partnerships in a world where geopolitical currents are continually shifting. With China as its largest trading partner, New Zealand in a delicate position: It must balance its economic interests with its alliance relationships and commitments.

While China and the United States are the most important external stakeholders on the Korean Peninsula, Russia has focused more on its strategic interests in the region out of concern over security issues in Europe. To achieve enduring peace, communication must resume under the multilateral framework of the Six-Party Talks.

The transformations spurred by the election are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. This year’s contest was less dramatic than earlier ones and the outcomes were more incremental.

The United States has been the biggest beneficiary of changes in the international order over the past century. Four key factors have contributed to its current hegemony.

Multipolarity has become a buzzword in global affairs with due credit to countries in the Global South taking strides toward establishing power independent of the U.S. or China. As developing nations demand a bigger share of voice, what challenges will they face?

Facing a choice of autonomy or continued dependence on the United States, some factions on the continent seek to avoid that stark choice. In pursuit of a European pillar within NATO, the EU appears to be navigating a middle path.

Now that the United States has introduced a new set of import tariffs on Chinese goods, the world’s two largest economies appear to be on the brink of open economic warfare – and developing countries are in danger of getting caught in the crossfire. Beyond the risk that they could face sanctions or other trade restrictions if one superpower perceives them to be helping the other, Sino-American trade tensions are eroding the value of many of these economies’ comparative advantages, such as cheap labor and land. Coping with these challenges will require skillful economic statecraft.

The great-power competition between the United States and China is a defining feature of the first part of this century, but there is little agreement on how it should be characterized. Some call it an “enduring rivalry” analogous to the one between Germany and Britain prior to the last century’s two world wars. Others worry that America and China are like Sparta (the dominant power) and Athens (the rising power) in the fifth century BC: “destined for war.” The problem, of course, is that a belief in the inevitability of conflict can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the competition between major powers, rational ones will choose strategies to protect their own interests. Irrational ones are likely to fall into a trap laid by rivals in which the cost of influence in underdeveloped regions becomes overbearing and results in retreat.