growth in regional partnerships and agreements has offset a new regional integration with China at its centre where the U.S. is excluded from participation, the most significant example being the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area established since January 2010. The emergence of new major powers is certain to bring changes to the balance of power dynamics regardless of the level and intensity at which these powers choose to balance the unipolar leader. Even if China and other growing states refrain from balancing the U.S., the sheer size of their economy, capability and military strength will undoubtedly pose certain constraints on the U.S. freedom of strategic action, ability to influence, dominate and project power in the future. Notes References Brooks, Stephen G. and Wohlforth, William C. "World out of Balance" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). Desker, Barry. "New Security Dimensions in the Asia-Pacific", Asia-Pacific Review, 15: 1 (2008): 56–75. Goh, Evelyn. "Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia Analyzing Regional Security Strategies", International Security, 32: 3 (2007): 113–157. Jervis, Robert. "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma", World Politics, 30: 2 (1978): 186–214. Levy, Jack S. "What do Great Powers Balance Against and When?" in T.V. Paul, J.J. Wirtz and M. Fortmann (eds) Balance of Power: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004). Mearsheimer, John J. "The Tragedy of the Great Power Politics", in Anarchy and the Struggle for Power (New York: Norton, 2001), 29–54. Olson, Mancur. "The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups", (Harvard University Press, 1971). Pape, Robert A., "Soft Balancing against the United States", International Security, 30: 1 (2005): 7-45. Paul, T.V. "Soft Balancing in the Age of U.S. Primacy", International Security, 30: 1 (2005): 46-71 The People's Republic of China - Information Office of the State Council. "China's National Defence in 2010 – White Paper" (2011). Available from: Simon, Sheldon W. "Alternative Visions of Security in the Asia Pacific", Pacific Affairs, 69: 3 (1996): 381–396. Taliaferro, Jeffrey W. "Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited", International Security, 25: 3 (2000): 128–161. Walt, Stephen. "Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power", International Security, 9: 4 (1985): 3-43. Waltz, Kenneth N. "Man, the State, and War" (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959). —, "Theory of International Relations" (Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1979). —, "Realism and International Politics" (New York: Routledge, 2008), 137; Wohlforth, William C., Stuart J. Kaufman and Richard Little, "Introduction: