Adapting Military Doctrines to Shifting Power Dynamics in the International System: Looking Beyond Unipolarity through the Analyses of Charles Kupchan

With the end of the bipolar system at the end of the Cold War, the world order shifted to a unipolar era led by the United States (US). However, with the increase in asymmetric threats and diversity of actors in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, this stabilization process has given way to uncertainties and multi-vector debates. Charles Kupchan’s work analyses different system transformations from a more structuralist perspective. This article aims to analyze how states determine their military doctrines and strategies in the face of constantly transforming system balances. Within the analytical framework discussed by Kupchan, it is possible to discuss how military doctrines are adapted to the variables of the international system. Many factors are at play here, from regionalism to alliance formations and threat perceptions to actors’ diversity. Kupchan’s “No One’s World” argument leads us to the problem of the opportunities and contradictions that states face in determining their strategic priorities within the framework of the complex structure of the multipolar order, which is this article’s main starting point.