The Relation between Extroverted/Introverted Foreign Policy and the Rise and Fall of World Hegemons

Although the patterns of emergence and decline of the powers are recurred for centuries, surprisingly there are no clear evidences to answer the question of what are the causes for rise and fall of powers. The efforts made to date to order the patterns of rise and fall of world powers have created a close link between the periodic patterns of emergence (and decline) of world orders with the cycles of rise (and fall) of global hegemons, which both are severely influenced by the waves of global wars. Utilizing the literature on this field and introducing new concepts such as introversion (seeking for internal power resources) and extroversion (introversion + seeking for external power resources beyond the borders), this essay is to test this hypothesis that “achieving the status of global hegemony by a super power requires the adoption of an introvertist approach until deployed hegemony enters into a decline period and subsequently transition into an extrovertist approach. On the other hand, taking on an introvertist approach by the deployed hegemon will abridge the hegemonic cycle and leads to the decline of the hegemon”. This research is exploratory in nature. To analyze the collected data, this study uses the causal or post-event method. Findings of the study confirm the above hypothesis and draw the conclusion that although there is no desertion of the recurrence of the hegemonic cycle and the global order, the length of a hegemonic cycle is subject to the pursuit of an extrovertist approach by the hegemon.