China, Anti-hegemonism, and the Scope for International Law to Facilitate Peaceful Power Transitions

International law has always been, and always will be, a political project; hence the thirst of international lawyers for an understanding of their political context.Ultimately no-one can know just what will follow the apparent denouement of the U.S. era in world politics and international law, nor how we will get there.The United States in 2022 announced the end of the post-Cold War era, 1 and many pundits emphasize that we are already in a more multipolar world order. 2 That may be true in the short-term, but this review essay takes as its starting point Wilhelm Grewe's approach to historical periodization, by which he views the history of international law as a series of back-to-back epochs on the basis of the predominant power of the day.From this perspective, there is a quite straightforward answer to the apparent riddle as to what is likely to follow the U.S. epoch in international law: another country's epoch.And there is not even much doubt as to which power is most likely to follow the United States: on present indications it will be China.Particularly when viewed within Grewe's inter-epochal framework, the scholarly contributions on decolonization by Adom Getachew and Martin Thomas offer a rich springboard from which to gain fresh insights into the role of international law in global power transitions.The three books together help us to recognize that international law has * Professor of International Law and International Relations, UNSW Sydney.The author would like to acknowledge the valuable research assistance of Dr. Michelle Chase.1 The White House, National Security Strategy, 6 (Oct.2022), at