K-Waves, Leadership Cycles, and Global War: A Nonhyphenated Approach to World Systems Analysis

Abstract

Summarizes the interdependence between long-term economic growth, political leadership, & global war, tracing changes in this relationship over the past millennium. A political science perspective on world-systems analysis is advanced that focuses on waves of political-economic processes rather than on the specific processes of capital accumulation, capitalism, & the core-periphery division of labor. Alternating periods of concentration & deconcentration in the relations between economics & politics are identified & analyzed in terms of K-waves & long cycles. As the world system is not autonomous, linkages between global & regional politics are also explored. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 61 References. K. Hyatt Stewart