Taking down a mammoth: Cooperation strategies of great and middle powers in challenging the hegemon

The paper investigates, through the analysis of original expert interviews, the conditions under which a group of great powers has emerged in the international system to challenge the hegemonic leader.The findings reveal that the current transition to a multipolar world order is fashioned by challengers which use the values, once promoted by the West, of equality, non-discrimination, self-determination, as well as the institutions originally designed to uphold them, to call out US conduct on the global stage and advance a new multipolar international decision-making model.The US appears as a mammoth, a representative of a past world order governed by coercion, that has lost its credibility as an international peace broker.Beyond cooperating between themselves to dislodge the hegemon, great powers are benefiting from the support of a group of rising middle powers who wish to see China and Russia take on the role of social stabilizer, global spokesperson, and economic leader.