Cohabitation in International Relations: Managed Competition Fragile States

Cohabitation in International Relations offers a groundbreaking framework to explain why, in a world of intense Great Power Competition, rival powers sometimes tolerate each other’s presence in weak states rather than engaging in full-scale conflict. Cohabitation in International Relations offers a groundbreaking framework to explain why, in a world of intense Great Power Competition, rival powers sometimes tolerate each other’s presence in weak states rather than engaging in full-scale conflict. Why do the United States and Iran coexist in Iraq, while Russia and the West fight a proxy war in Ukraine? Why do some weak states become shatterbelts, while others maintain an uneasy state of overlapping influence? When a distant Global Power encounters a neighboring Regional Power with deep historical ties, they often enter a tense but durable stalemate—a “fragile equilibrium” where displacement is costly. This book draws on cases from the Middle East, South Asia, and Post- Soviet space, the Western Hemisphere and Africa, and identifies the structural rules governing this phenomenon, including ‘The Actor Rule’, ‘The Influence Rule’ and ‘The Proximity Rule’. By formalizing a framework that no existing theory fully explains, this book fills a critical gap in IR scholarship. It redefines contemporary statecraft, showing that success is no longer measured only in battlefield victories, but in managing the complex, high-stakes reality of living alongside rivals. Cohabitation in International Relations is essential reading for scholars, students, policymakers, and analysts in International Relations, Security Studies, and Geopolitics.