Agenda-Setting & Convening

770–480 BC

The Five Hegemons of the Eastern Zhou exercised Chinese hegemony as Zhou central rule weakened

During the Spring and Autumn period the decay of Eastern Zhou authority allowed powerful states to act with relative autonomy as recognised hegemons, or Ba. This gave East Asia an indigenous tradition of hegemonic leadership distinct from outright conquest.

550 BC–330 BC

Achaemenid Persia dominated Greek sub-regional hegemonies as a super-regional power

The Persian Achaemenid Empire overshadowed the smaller hegemonies of the Greek world until its own collapse. It illustrated a tier of dominance above regional leadership.

478–404 BC

Athens led the Delian League as hegemon

Athens directed the affairs of the Delian League, converting alliance leadership into predominance over its members. Its collapse was followed by short-lived Spartan and Theban hegemonies.

364 BC

Duke Xian of Qin was named hegemon by the King of Zhou after victory in war

Qin's military success led the Zhou king to confer the title of hegemon on Duke Xian. Later Qin rulers dropped the formal title while retaining effective hegemony over the warring states.

5th–4th century BC

Ancient Greek historians Herodotus, Xenophon and Ephorus pioneered use of the term hēgemonía in its modern sense

Writers of the classical Greek world gave the word hegemony its enduring meaning of politico-military predominance of one city-state over others. This provided the earliest conceptual vocabulary for describing a state's capacity to lead and set the agenda for others.

6th–4th century BC

Sparta acted as hegemon of the Peloponnesian League

Sparta led the Peloponnesian League as its dominant member, exercising direction over allied policy without annexing its members. It became a template for sub-regional leadership in the Greek world.

337 BC

King Philip II of Macedon became hegemon of the League of Corinth

Philip II was designated hegemon of the League of Corinth, a leadership he bequeathed to his son Alexander the Great. It fused Greek hegemonic form with Macedonian dynastic power.

322 BC

Rival warring states of China formed the first anti-hegemonic perpendicular alliance against Qin

Opposition to Qin's horizontal alliance produced the first vertical or anti-hegemonic coalition. It marked an early instance of balancing behaviour against a would-be hegemon.

318 BC

Five remaining great warring states joined an anti-hegemonic coalition and attacked Qin

The coalition of the other great states assaulted Qin but was overwhelmed. The pattern of failed balancing repeated several times before Qin abandoned hegemony for outright conquest.

221 BC

Qin moved decisively from hegemony to conquest and annexation

After a century of confrontation with anti-hegemonic alliances, Qin abandoned indirect leadership and unified China by annexation. The episode marks the transition from hegemony to empire.

189 BC

Rome established Mediterranean hegemony after defeating the Seleucid Empire

Victory over the Seleucids left Rome predominant across the Mediterranean. Notably Rome did not settle or tax subdued territories between 200 and 148 BC, exercising leadership over client kings rather than direct rule.

64 BC

Rome began regular taxation of a client kingdom in Judea

The first good evidence of systematic Roman revenue extraction from another kingdom dates from Judea, alongside the annexation of Pontus in the same year. It marks the shift from hegemonic oversight to imperial administration.

30 BC

Augustus annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the last major Mediterranean client state

At the outset of his reign Augustus absorbed Egypt, ending the era of client kingdoms in the Mediterranean. Hegemony over allies was thereby replaced by direct imperial rule.

7th century · 1426 years ago

Harsha of northern India brought most of northern India under his hegemony

Ruling from 606 to 647, Harsha assembled a large north Indian empire and imposed his leadership over most of the region. It is cited as a South Asian instance of hegemonic predominance.

9th–11th century · 1226 years ago

The Carolingian empire achieved hegemony in Europe under Charlemagne's successors

The empire developed by Charlemagne dominated France, much of northern and central Italy, Burgundy and Germany. It represents the first post-Roman European hegemony.

7th–12th century · 1426 years ago

The Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates dominated their world with rivals including Byzantium paying tribute

Successive caliphates exercised predominance over vast territories and extracted tribute from neighbouring states. This constituted a long Islamic phase of regional hegemony.

1368 onward · 658 years ago

The Chinese tribute system structured diplomatic and trade relations across East Asia for centuries

Ming and later Qing China organised relations with neighbouring states around a hierarchical system of tribute missions, setting the terms on which much of East Asia engaged with the empire for more than 500 years.

11th–15th century · 1026 years ago

Venice and Genoa held maritime and commercial hegemony in the Mediterranean

The Italian maritime republics dominated trade between Europe and the Orient and held naval supremacy for centuries. Their case shows hegemony grounded in commerce and sea power rather than territory.

15th century · 626 years ago

European powers began to dominate the global economic system

From as early as the fifteenth century European states set the terms of global economic exchange. This opened the sequence of successive European hegemonies.

1494–1580 · 532 years ago

Portugal held European hegemony from the Italian Wars to the Spanish–Portuguese Union

Portugal is dated as hegemon from the end of the Italian Wars to its union with Spain. It heads the conventional list of successive modern hegemonic powers.

1513 · 513 years ago

Post-classical Latin usage recorded the word hēgemonia in Western vocabulary

The Latin term hegemonia, borrowed from the Greek for authority, rule or political supremacy, appears by 1513 or earlier. Its adoption gave European political thought a word for predominance short of empire.

1516–1659 · 510 years ago

Spain held hegemony from Charles I's accession to the Treaty of the Pyrenees

Habsburg Spain dominated Europe for over a century before its decline was sealed by the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Philip IV's attempt at restoration failed, and by mid-century Spain's pretensions to European hegemony had irremediably collapsed.

1580–1688 · 446 years ago

The Dutch Republic built an early commercial hegemony on mercantilism and wind power

Dated from the Treaty of Utrecht founding the Republic to the Glorious Revolution, Dutch dominion rested on efficient production and delivery of goods and services enabled by wind power. It was an early instance of hegemony rooted in commerce rather than conquest.

1648 · 378 years ago

The Peace of Westphalia established the principle of sovereign equality among states

The treaties ending the Thirty Years' War fixed sovereignty and non-interference as organising principles of interstate relations, the foundation on which later claims to shape a shared international agenda would rest.

1667–1688 · 359 years ago

Louis XIV's France pursued French hegemony from the War of Devolution to the Nine Years' War

Louis XIV sought economic, cultural and military domination of most of continental Europe. France is dated as hegemon for these two decades before Britain's rise.

1688–1792 · 338 years ago

Britain held hegemony from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolutionary Wars

The Glorious Revolution inaugurated a century of British predominance ended by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. It established Britain as a recurring modern hegemon.

1789–1815 · 237 years ago

Napoleonic France attempted true French hegemony over continental Europe

Napoleon I sought domination of the continent through economic, cultural and military means. His defeat and exile ended the French bid and transferred predominance elsewhere.

1815 · 211 years ago

The Congress of Vienna established great-power congresses as a mechanism for managing the international agenda

European powers redrew the continent's borders after the Napoleonic Wars and set a precedent of regular multilateral gatherings to manage shared problems, a model of summit diplomacy later adapted well beyond Europe.

1815–1914 · 211 years ago

The British Empire exercised global hegemony from the Congress of Vienna to the Great War

After Napoleon's defeat hegemony passed to Britain, which became the largest empire in history, ruling a quarter of the world's land and population at its zenith under Queen Victoria. This was the classic case of a single state setting global economic and political terms.

19th century · 226 years ago

Nineteenth-century historians extended hegemony to mean the predominance of one country over others

Historical writing broadened the term from intra-society ascendancy to inter-state predominance. By extension hegemonism came to denote the Great Power politics of roughly the 1880s to 1914 aimed at indirect imperial rule.

1871 · 155 years ago

Bismarck's Germany renounced expansion and any push for hegemony in Europe

Although Germany may have been Europe's strongest power after unification, Bismarck defined the road ahead as no expansion and no bid for hegemony. Restraint by the strongest state shaped the multipolar order until 1914.

1919 · 107 years ago

The Paris Peace Conference created the League of Nations

The conference that ended the First World War produced the first permanent body meant to manage disputes and coordinate international policy, though it excluded Germany, Soviet Russia and much of the colonised world.

February 2026 · 6 months ago

India prepared to host the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi

The summit continued the international sequence on AI governance that began with the UK's Bletchley Park meeting in 2023, with India positioning itself as a bridge between Western regulatory approaches and the priorities of developing economies.

January 2026

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared at Davos that the rules-based global order was over

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Carney said international economic partnerships were in the midst of a rupture rather than a transition. He called on middle powers to act together to avoid being victimised by American hegemony.

November 2025 · 9 months ago

Brazil staged COP30 in the Amazon rainforest city of Belém

Brazil used its hosting role to press wealthier nations on climate finance commitments and to foreground Amazon deforestation and indigenous rights within the formal negotiating agenda.

November 2025 · 9 months ago

South Africa hosted the first G20 summit held on African soil

The Johannesburg summit emphasised debt relief, critical minerals and climate finance for developing economies, with South Africa using its presidency to press for a permanent African voice in global economic governance.

• The United States downgraded its participation

October 2025 · 10 months ago

Egypt hosted a summit endorsing a Gaza ceasefire and reconstruction framework

Leaders from dozens of countries gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh to lend political weight to the ceasefire agreement, reinforcing Egypt's long-standing role as a convening power on the Palestinian file.

• Qatar and Turkey served as co-guarantors

September 2025 · 11 months ago

China hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin

The gathering brought together Russian, Indian and Central Asian leaders and was used to promote a narrative of multipolar cooperation as an alternative to Western-led forums.

February 2025 · last year

Djibouti's Mahmoud Ali Youssouf took over as African Union Commission chairperson

He pledged a more assertive common African position in multilateral negotiations, including on United Nations Security Council reform and debt relief, succeeding Moussa Faki Mahamat.

February 2025 · last year

France hosted the AI Action Summit in Paris

Government, industry and civil-society leaders discussed emerging international norms for artificial intelligence, with France seeking to shape the agenda ahead of the following summit in India.

• The United States declined to sign the summit's closing declaration

February 2025 · last year

Saudi Arabia hosted the first direct US-Russia talks on the Ukraine war

Officials met in Riyadh without Ukrainian representatives present at the opening session, underscoring the kingdom's positioning as a venue acceptable to Moscow and Washington alike.

2025–26 · 1 year ago

Stephen Walt argued and then revised his view that Chinese regional hegemony was unlikely

In a 2025 International Security article Walt held that a balancing coalition in Asia made Chinese regional hegemony improbable. In May 2026 he revisited the argument, saying he had underestimated Trump's incompetence and that the prospects for Chinese hegemony now looked better.

2025 · 1 year ago

Donald Trump's administration halted aid to Ukraine and Taiwan, straining American hegemony

Trump adopted a more pro-Russian line, cut assistance to Ukraine and Taiwan and took an aggressive stance towards allies including Canada. Observers including Michael Ignatieff judged that China and Russia saw an unprecedented opening to overthrow American predominance.

Mid-2025 · last year

Turkey hosted direct Russia-Ukraine talks for the first time since the war's early weeks

Delegations met in Istanbul for several rounds of negotiations covering prisoner exchanges and the outline of a wider settlement, reinforcing Turkey's position as a venue acceptable to both sides.

November 2024 · 2 years ago

Brazil launched the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty at the G20 Rio summit

The initiative, a signature project of Brazil's G20 presidency, sought to align governments and development banks behind coordinated financing for anti-poverty programmes.

2024 · 2 years ago

Vladimir Putin celebrated the crumbling hegemonic world after Trump's re-election

Two days after the US election Putin declared that no hegemony could be a consideration in the new international environment. Russian official agencies later proclaimed victory over hegemony following the 2025 Trump–Zelenskyy meeting and Trump's tariff and expansionist moves.

2023 · 3 years ago

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a pamphlet condemning US hegemony

The pamphlet dated American hegemony from the end of the Cold War and claimed its abuse imperilled the world, listing only Andorra, Liechtenstein and Bhutan among UN members as free of US military involvement. It marked an explicit state-level contest over the legitimacy of hegemony.

2019 · 7 years ago

Academics at the Green School of International and Public Affairs proposed a Dutch-style third-way hegemony for China

The authors argued a third path, neither peaceful nor violent in the conventional sense, best described China's likely global rise. It extended the commercial-hegemony model to a rising power.

2014–22 · 12 years ago

Russia annexed Crimea and later invaded Ukraine, annexing four more regions

Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014 was followed by a full-scale invasion in 2022 and further annexations. The actions directly challenged the rules-based order underpinned by American hegemony.

2006 · 20 years ago

Zhu Zhiqun argued China was already becoming the world hegemon

Zhu contended the key question was how power could be transferred peacefully from the United States to China. The claim drew significant opposition but framed subsequent transition debates.

2002 · 24 years ago

Joseph Nye published The Paradox of American Power

Nye opened the book by claiming that no nation since Rome had loomed so large above others, and elsewhere argued the United States was bound to lead. The works framed debate over American primacy and soft power.

1999 · 27 years ago

Hubert Védrine described the United States as a hegemonic hyperpower

The French Socialist politician coined the hyperpower label on account of unilateral American military action worldwide. The term captured unease among allies about unchecked US agenda-setting.

1991 · 35 years ago

The United States became the world's sole hegemonic power after the Soviet collapse

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States without a peer competitor. Chinese official commentary later dates US hegemony precisely from the end of the Cold War.

1985 · 41 years ago

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe redefined hegemony as an articulation within political discourse

In Hegemony and Socialist Strategy they described hegemony as a power relationship in which a subordinate collectivity performs tasks benefiting only the ordinate power. The account tied military, political and economic dominance to discursive construction.

1980s · 46 years ago

Scholars of US decline identified Japan's economic growth as a threat to American primacy

Japanese growth and technological sophistication were singled out as challenges to US predominance. It was an early test of theories about hegemonic transition.

1975 · 51 years ago

The Group of Six held its founding summit at Rambouillet, France

Leaders of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan and Italy met to coordinate responses to oil shocks and currency instability, establishing an annual practice of economic agenda-setting among the largest Western economies.

1973 · 53 years ago

OPEC imposed an oil embargo that forced energy security onto the global agenda

Arab oil-exporting members curtailed exports over Western support for Israel in the October war, sharply raising prices within months and showing that resource-exporting states outside the traditional great powers could set the terms of global economic debate.

1970s · 56 years ago

Robert Gilpin and Stephen D. Krasner developed hegemonic stability theory

The theory formalised the idea that one predominant state maintains global order by providing public goods. Gilpin also predicted American decline as the benefits of those goods diffused to other states.

1961 · 65 years ago

Non-aligned states founded the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade

Yugoslavia, India, Egypt, Indonesia and Ghana were among the founders of a movement declining to align with either Cold War bloc, giving newly independent nations a standing platform for coordinated positions at the United Nations and beyond.

1955 · 71 years ago

Delegates from 29 Asian and African states met at Bandung to oppose colonialism and assert a common developing-world position

The conference produced principles on sovereignty, non-interference and cooperation that shaped the language of developing-world diplomacy for decades and prefigured the Non-Aligned Movement founded six years later.

early 20th century · 126 years ago

Antonio Gramsci applied hegemony to politics within a society

The Italian Marxist philosopher used hegemony to analyse consent and leadership inside a given society. From this derived the political-science sense of hegemony as leadership rather than coercion.

1949–1991 · 77 years ago

The Warsaw Pact and NATO blocs waged an ideological and geopolitical hegemonic conflict

Hegemonic rivalry between communism and capitalism was institutionalised in the Warsaw Pact (1955–1991) and NATO, SEATO and CENTO. The bipolar structure meant no single global hegemon during the Cold War.

1947 · 79 years ago

The Marshall Plan committed US funding to rebuild Western Europe

The United States committed some $13 billion to European recovery, using an economic initiative to cement Cold War alignments and demonstrate how a great power could set another region's agenda through funding rather than force.

1945 · 81 years ago

The United Nations was founded in San Francisco

51 states signed the founding charter, creating a permanent body through which member states could propose resolutions, convene sessions and contest the international agenda on a standing basis.

• The Security Council was fixed with five veto-holding permanent members