This book seeks to answer one main question: what is the core concern of great powers that
streamlines their behavior in the contemporary system of international relations? Building on
the examples of the United States China Russia France and Britain it tracks both
consistency and fluctuations in global power dynamics and great power behavior. The author
examines the genesis causality and policy implications of decision makers' fixation with
retaining a credible image of power in world politics while exploring how the dynamics of
power distribution in international systems modify perceptions of primacy. Drawing on findings
from disciplines such as history economics social and political psychology communication
theory philosophy political science strategic studies and above all from International
Relations theory and practice the volume proposes a novel theory of power credibility which
offers an original explanation of great powers' behavior at the stage of their relative
decline.
