The Place of China in the US National Security Strategy Documents and the Hegemonic Order

National Security Strategy documents are the roadmaps that the USA envisages in the environment defined as the new world order after the Cold War. These strategy documents, which were published for the first time in the Reagan period show which political approach will be taken. These reports are based on the importance of the necessary security poli- cies of that period. Here, it is possible to deduce the elements that the USA sees as a threat to itself. This work chronologically discusse China, which the USA saw as a strategic partner in the early 1990s, but defined as a stra- tegic competitor, sometimes even an enemy, and sometimes an unstable risk factor in the last decade through strategy documents. As a method, the National Security Strategy reports published nineteen times since 1987 were examined through the transformation and reasons of the policies envi- saged to be applied to China. These reasons were investigated through the understanding of hegemony. Therefore, the study is a qualitative research that aims to reveal a relational connection, in which documents are used as a source. The main purpose is to find out how China’s post-Cold War rise was reflected in the strategy documents in the context of security and how it caused an American reaction in the Strategy Documents in power competition. Here, it is seen that there is a connection between the power regression of the hegemonic actor and the incentives for participation in the hegemonic order it leads. The new hegemonic leader may emerge from friendly countries, which are encouraged by hegemon actor for hegemonic order, rather than rivals with long-term power competition.