67 gfpr 10.31703/gfpr Global Foreign Policies Review gfpr 2788-502X 2788-5038 Humanity Publications Pakistan 395982 10.31703/gfpr.2026(IX-II).04 6449 1.0 article Power Transition Theory and the Global Power Hierarchy: Analyzing Sino-American Power Politics in Indo-Pacific Region during 2017-2025 Ali Nazik Conceptualization Writing – original draft Mustafa Ghulam Writing – review & editing Amjad Ayesha Writing – review & editing M.Phil. Scholar, Department of International Relations, Government College University, Faisalabad Punjab Pakistan Department of International Relations, Government College University, Faisalabad Associate Professor Punjab Pakistan Corresponding Author: Nazik Ali, M.Phil. Scholar, Department of International Relations, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

This study did not require formal ethics approval.

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

 30 06 2026 06 2026 12 05 2026 9 2 Spring 25 35 12 05 2026

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

 2026 Humanity Publications This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Full Text PDF

While analyzing the power dynamics, order and hierarchy in the international system, academic scholars and researchers have laid stress on the great powers and considered other states as sub-structural units of the international system. The competition between USA and China in the Indo-pacific region has led the regional in the region to configure their foreign policies to take advantage and hedge against potential risks posed by the Sino-American power competition in the region. This power transformation can be best understood with the help of power transition theory which states that hegemony of a dominant power is challenged by a great power and hence the international political system is hierarchical rather than being anarchic. This qualitative study aims to address the power competition between USA  and China in the Indo-pacific region.

 Power transition theory Power Competition China USA Indo-Pacific views112 downloads42 html-views0 google-scholar-citations0 crossref-citations0 Content

While analyzing the power dynamics, order and hierarchy in the international system, academic scholars and researchers have laid stress on the great powers and considered other states as sub-structural units of the international system. The competition between USA and China in the Indo-pacific region has led the regional in the region to configure their foreign policies to take advantage and hedge against potential risks posed by the Sino-American power competition in the region. This power transformation can be best understood with the help of power transition theory which states that hegemony of a dominant power is challenged by a great power and hence the international political system is hierarchical rather than being anarchic. This qualitative study aims to address the power competition between USA  and China in the Indo-pacific region.

 Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

 Ethics Statement

This study did not require formal ethics approval.

 Data Availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

 Supplementary Materials Full Text PDF