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Governing radical uncertainty: Temporal superposition and the stability of world order projects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2026

Igor Sevenard  and
Richard J. Cook Open the ORCID record for Richard J. Cook [Opens in a new window]
Igor Sevenard
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
Richard J. Cook*
Affiliation:
Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
*
Corresponding author: Richard J. Cook; Email: richardjcook@nankai.edu.cn
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Abstract

World order projects frequently exhibit a structural contradiction of projecting inevitable success, yet simultaneously warn of existential fragility. While traditional theories of hegemonic order transition often dismiss such contradictions as incoherence, they fail to explain how great powers sustain mutually exclusive temporalities. This article advances the concept of ‘superposed present futures’ to theorize how great powers govern the radical uncertainty of international politics by maintaining conflicting temporalities simultaneously. Adopting a discursive superposition heuristic, we argue that the resilience of a world order project depends on managing an intra-actor paradox, as the project is discursively constructed as both historically inevitable and imminently threatened. The framework is operationalized through a qualitative analysis of China’s ‘Global Community of Shared Future’ (GCSF) discourse from 2013 to 2025 as a case study. By bridging quantum social theory with historiographical typologies of future generation, it is demonstrated how Beijing stabilizes the GCSF by superposing a future of inevitability to enhance international coordination, alongside a future of fragility to enforce political discipline in the face of complacency. The article contributes to the temporal turn in International Relations (IR) by reframing world order projects from linear projections to complex temporal regimes of expectation management that sustain power through productive tension.

Keywords

futureGlobal Community of Shared Futuregreat power politicssuperpositiontemporalityworld order projects

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Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The British International Studies Association.

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128 MFA, ‘Xi Jinping hosts the First China-Central Asia Summit and delivers a keynote speech’; State Council Information Office, ‘China and the world in the new era’.

129 Kirshner, An Unwritten Future, p. 214.

130 Xi, ‘Secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era’.

131 MFA, ‘Xi Jinping delivers keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022’.

132 MFA, ‘Xi Jinping delivers keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022’.

133 State Council Information Office, ‘A global community of shared future’; Xi, ‘Keynote speech by President Xi Jinping at the United Nations Office at Geneva’.

134 Xi, ‘Xi Jinping’s speech at the general debate of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly’; Xi, ‘Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018’.

135 State Council Information Office, ‘A global community of shared future’.

136 MFA, ‘Xi Jinping delivers important speech at the UN Summit on Biodiversity’.

137 Graf and Herzog, ‘Von der Geschichte der Zukunftsvorstellungen’, p. 510.

138 Daekwon Son, ‘China’s strategic opportunity in the era of “America First”’, International Affairs, 101:5 (2025), p. 1906.

139 State Council Information Office, ‘A global community of shared future’.

140 Xi, ‘Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018’.

141 Xi, ‘Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the First China-Arab States Summit’.

142 State Council Information Office, ‘A global community of shared future’.

143 MFA, ‘Xi Jinping delivers important speech at the UN Summit on Biodiversity’; State Council Information Office, ‘A global community of shared future’.

144 Graf and Herzog, ‘Von der Geschichte der Zukunftsvorstellungen’.

145 Hölscher, ‘Future pasts’, pp. 902–3.

146 Hartog and Brown, Regimes of Historicity, p. 18.

147 Hom, International Relations and the Problem of Time, p. 11.

148 Felix Berenskoetter, ‘Reclaiming the vision thing: Constructivists as students of the future’, International Studies Quarterly, 55:3 (2011), p. 654.

149 Esposito, The Future of Futures, pp. 14, 22.

150 Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992).

151 Graf and Herzog, ‘Von der Geschichte der Zukunftsvorstellungen’.