In modern world politics, there exists a dynamic of change, and an observable pattern of phenomena. These phenomena consist of driving forces, of new paradigms that their exigencies induce, of new epochs that such exigencies provoke, of adjustments made by states (who may be initiators, new comers, late comers, or inactive), and of shifts in the hierarchy of world powers that the differentiated rate of their adjustment success produces, causing what power shift theory refers to as hegemonic transition. This book examines the conditions under which such change occurs, the recurrence of such change in various epochs of the modern era, and the pattern that such recurrence displays in order to explain the recurrent shift in the hierarchy of wealth, status and power among peer states.