Centre for the Study of Global Power Competition (CGPC)

The Centre for the Study of Global Power Competition (CGPC) brings together multi-disciplinary perspectives to study the dynamics of contemporary inter-state competition.

Mission

The world today is characterised by pervasive competition between states to shape the norms, rules, and practices of international order. In the domains of security, technology and innovation, energy, trade and investment, the environment, human rights and international law, major powers are increasingly staking divergent positions on key questions. Clear fault lines have emerged between the US and China and Russia, and between plural democracies and authoritarian regimes, on fundamental issues of how international order should be organised.  

These frictions have encouraged states of all sizes and capabilities to view the world as once more animated by great power competition, and to act accordingly, asserting increasingly transactional postures in the military, diplomatic, technology, legal, and economic spheres, and drawing back from cooperative arrangements. Intensifying competitive increasingly affects actors and sectors beyond traditional national security concerns, in supply chains, energy, raw materials, and intellectual property. 

The Centre for the Study of Global Power Competition (CGPC) studies this intensifying systemic competition by bringing together multiple disciplines to examine the different domains within which the competition manifests itself, and the strategies states adopt towards it. In doing so, CGPC seeks to understand how competition among powers may generate productive reforms of international order that respond to shifting power distributions and address global challenges. 

Discover our research

Our research explores and critiques the dynamics of power competition between states.

Centre directors

Our Centre is staffed by experts from the Departments of Politics, the School of Law, Surrey Business School, and the School of Economics.

Dr Nicholas Kitchen

Senior Lecturer in International Relations; Director, Centre for the Study of Global Power Competition (CGPC)

I joined Surrey in 2018 from the London School of Economics, where I had been Assistant Professorial Research Fellow in the United States Centre, Executive Director of the LSE Diplomacy Commission, and Head of Analysis at LSE IDEAS. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and Treasurer and Acting Convenor of the US Foreign ...

Dr Joshua Andresen

Associate Professor of National Security and Foreign Relations Law, Associate Head of School - Engagement

Joshua (JD, Yale; PhD, Northwestern) is an international lawyer working in national security and human rights law. His areas of expertise range from the law of armed conflict and international human rights law to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, including sanctions compliance and the regulation of cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Joshua’s recent ...

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@CGPC_Surrey

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Yes it’s happening ! Panel one is underway.. great discussion on production networks, international law and UN agen… https://t.co/F21WiRDpIL
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We’ll be live-streaming our discussions of great power competition and national strategies on Friday: join us onlin… https://t.co/Wry8dZh8N7
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Last day to register for our Power Competition Workshop https://t.co/lIKtNTtMIX can’t wait to see you there !