Looking Beyond the US–China Rivalry: What RuleWatcher Revealed About an Emerging Multipolar World

Author

Bridgida Akomiah

MA in Public Policy, International University of Japan (IUJ)

Key findings

●      Four structured searches on RuleWatcher returned over 2,600 primary-source policy documents on great power competition alone, spanning China, Singapore, Russia, the EU, Korea, and South Africa.

●      Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and multiple China-Russia and BRICS joint statements show active bloc-building and hedging behavior operating outside the US-China axis.

●      A search on de-dollarization surfaced concrete alternative payment infrastructure, mBridge and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, even as the US dollar retains roughly 58% of global reserves.

●      RuleWatcher's TreeMap and region filters made it possible to move from raw search results to thematic clusters within a single afternoon, rather than the several days manual searching would likely have taken.

Overview

Is today's world really defined by competition between the United States and China, or are we seeing the emergence of a more multipolar international order? That question became the starting point of this research.

Rather than relying on news reports or opinion articles, I used RuleWatcher, OSINTech's policy intelligence platform, to explore how governments, international organizations, and research institutions themselves describe the changing global order.

Description of the research

I began by searching "great power competition," filtering it with the regions; Asia, BRICS, Northern America, and G7 and the countries; United States and China; this search returned approximately 2,629 documents.

To gain a broader overview of the results, I explored RuleWatcher's TreeMap visualization. The visual clustering helped me identify recurring themes and understand how different policy topics were connected before selecting documents for closer reading.

I then carried out two additional searches.

The first focused on middle powers, which returned approximately 14,385 results. The second focused on de-dollarization, producing 8 highly relevant policy documents related to alternative payment systems and international finance.

To organise the material, I exported 200 articles as a CSV file.

The exported dataset included publication dates, article titles, summaries, countries, organizations, themes, tags, and mentioned organizations. Having the information in spreadsheet form made it much easier to compare documents, identify recurring patterns, and manage the research process.

How RuleWatcher was used

RuleWatcher was the central research tool throughout this project. Its keyword search let me move past academic terminology and see how governments actually discuss global political developments, while the filtering system narrowed thousands of documents into a manageable dataset. The TreeMap gave a quick visual overview of dominant themes, and the CSV export let me organize everything in spreadsheet form for closer review.

What worked well with external tools

After exporting the documents, I used AI tools to organize the dataset, flag duplicates, summarize lengthy reports, and group similar themes thus freeing up time to focus on reading the most relevant policy documents while keeping the original sources as the basis for every conclusion. The combination improved research efficiency without compromising accuracy.

Findings and Usefulness

 Several findings challenged the assumption that international politics is becoming increasingly bipolar. Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered the clearest example: Senior Minister of State Sim Ann emphasized that Singapore's foreign policy is guided by its own national interests rather than by choosing between the United States and China (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, 2024).

China–Russia joint statements highlighted expanding cooperation in trade, energy, and strategic coordination (Government of China, 2024), while BRICS cooperation documents described growing collaboration on industrial development, digital technology, and innovation among emerging economies (Government of China, 2022).

On de-dollarization, documents discussing initiatives such as mBridge and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) suggested countries are exploring alternative payment systems even as the US dollar remains the dominant reserve currency (Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, 2024).

Taken together, these documents suggest that global influence is increasingly shared among regional organizations, middle powers, and emerging institutions rather than concentrated solely in Washington and Beijing; connections that RuleWatcher made far easier to identify by bringing official documents from many governments into one searchable platform.

Can other services have the same function?

Traditional search engines and academic databases can locate similar documents, but they often prioritize news coverage and commentary over primary sources. RuleWatcher's advantage is direct access to official documents, filterable by region, organization, country, and topic, which makes it faster and more systematic than piecing together multiple sources by hand.

The time saved was significant: locating a comparable volume of primary-source documents by manually searching government, Intergovernmental Organization, and NGO websites one at a time would likely have taken several days. Four structured RuleWatcher searches, refined through region and keyword filters, returned the same breadth of coverage within a single afternoon.

Conclusions and future perspectives

This project demonstrated how RuleWatcher's search, filtering, TreeMap, and export features can move a researcher efficiently from a broad question to well-supported findings grounded in primary policy documents. Beyond this project, I see real potential for students, researchers, and policy professionals working on global governance and international affairs.

I plan to keep using RuleWatcher throughout any research, particularly to monitor diplomatic hedging and the evolving role of middle powers, and to extend this approach to comparative research on Africa-Asia relations and international development policy. That continued focus on middle powers and hedging is itself an answer to the question this project began with: the documents gathered here point toward a world that is no longer adequately described in bipolar terms, one where regional blocs and emerging institutions are shaping outcomes alongside

References

Government of China. (2022, September 9). 2022 BRICS New Industrial Revolution Partnership series activities held. Retrieved via RuleWatcher.

Government of China. (2024, May 16). Joint statement between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. Retrieved via RuleWatcher.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore. (2024, June 6). Transcript of Senior Minister of State Sim Ann's keynote address and dialogue at the 21st Nomura Investment Forum Asia. Retrieved via RuleWatcher.

Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. (2024, May 30). Will growth in regional payment systems spur de-dollarisation? Retrieved via RuleWatcher.

PRC State Council. (2024, November 24). Standing on the right side of history: Records of President Xi Jinping's attendance at the 19th G20 Leaders' Summit and his state visit to Brazil. Retrieved via RuleWatcher.