Book excerpt: This book traces the dynamics of international rivalry from the late 1970s up through the present. Among the members of the dominant North political discord has become prominent recently in debates ranging from the Balkan Wars to the Second Gulf War. Yet a wide array of disputes--launching of global positioning systems to steel imports--have shattered the semblance of unity and cooperation among the members of the North, the triad of Europe, U.S., and east Asia. The book explores the subversive ways in which the configuration of economic networks in east Asia are subtly leaving their mark on the structure of the world-system. Also addressed are the ramifications on the South of this sharpening rivalry and, more importantly, whether this round of imperial rivalry will eventually give way, as previously in history, to new forms of international domination.