Feb. 25, 2026
Strategic Assessment 2025: Evolving Great Power Competition at Mid-Decade
The geostrategic framework of international relations at mid-decade remains heavily conditioned and shaped by Great Power Competition (GPC) between three rivalrous, globally dominant states: the United States, China and Russia. After more than two decades of mainly cooperation and collaboration, these Great Powers drifted into de-facto rivalrous competition at the end of the 2000s. By the middle of the twenty-tens, their undeclared but obvious rivalry intensified, and their major interactions shifted from those of cooperation and collaboration to competition, confrontation and preparation for potential armed clash.