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"Why do international orders lack systemic legitimacy? This study examines the developing relationship between the US and China and explores the ways in which these two global powers are transitioning to a new global order, albeit one with significant risks and uncertainties for governance and legitimacy. Terhalle argues that the financial crisis of 2008/09 established China as the key challenger to the United States amid a process of order transition. Subsequent disagreements between these two powers about the future shape of the global order's legitimacy have manifested themselves in their intense competition with regard to spheres of influence in East Asia and the environment and ideology-related aspects of the order. In positing a new theoretical framework for understanding order and legitimacy in International Relations, The Transition of Global Order offers a significant contribution to the debate around world politics and the new global order"--

Many Western and non-Western scholars consider the 2008 financial crisis a fundamental caesura, precipitating a decentred globalism. However, they have neither conceptualized the foundations of the dynamics that developed before this caesura nor have they theorized the amalgamating process which ultimately merged the hitherto overlooked and the formerly predominant Western forces and actors. Addressing this deficit, this article presents two innovations. First, it re-conceptualizes the 1970s by integrating two macro-developments: China's deviation from patterns of the former Third World's development and the thickening of liberal politico-economic institutions. Their relationship was complementary, but independent, since heterogeneous purposes drove these strands. Neither was disrupted by the end of bipolarity. Thereby, this article offers the first narrative of the years 1970–2008, viewing them as the incubation period of both strands' simultaneous development before their fusion in 'decentred globalism'. Consequently, the 1970s supersede International Relations (IR's) hegemonic benchmark date of 1989–1991. Second, the article accounts for the merging of macro-developments. It argues that, despite regularities, international social life is characterized by heterogeneous purposes derived from different social contexts, reflecting an environment that operates in multidirectional ways. Large trends in the environment, such as those of the 1970s, may coincide at contingent points in time (e.g., 2008). Based on comprehensive reviews of distinct literatures, these two innovations emerge as the key building blocks for the development of a theory of benchmark dates for a 'decentred' global order.