The Rise Of China And Chinese International Relations Scholarship

This book looks at the relationship between Chinese international relations (IR) scholarship and China’s rise as a world power. Specifically, it addresses how China’s rising international status since the early 1990s has shaped the country’s IR studies, and the different ways that Chinese IR scholars are interpreting that rise. The author argues that the development of IR studies in China has been influenced by China’s past historical experiences, its recent change in status in world politics, and indigenous scholarly interpretations of both factors. Instead of treating Chinese IR scholars as value-free social scientists, the author shows how Chinese scholars—as purposive, strategic, and emotional actors—tend to manipulate existing (mostly Western) IR theories to support their policy propositions and identity statements. This book represents one of few efforts to determine how local Chinese scholars are constructing IR knowledge, how they are dealing with intersections between indigenous Chinese and imported IR theory and concepts, and how Chinese scholars are analyzing “their China” in terms of its current rise to power.

This edited volume offers arguably the first systemic and critical assessment of the debates about and contestations to the construction of a putative Chinese School of IR as sociological realities in the context of China’s rapid rise to a global power status. Contributors to this volume scrutinize a particular approach to worlding beyond the West as a conscious effort to produce alternative knowledge in an increasingly globalized discipline of IR. Collectively, they grapple with the pitfalls and implications of such intellectual creativity drawing upon local traditions and concerns, knowledge claims, and indigenous sources for the global production of knowledge of IR. They also consider critically how such assertions of Chinese voices and articulation of their ambition for theoretical innovation from the disciplinary margins contribute to the emergence of a Global IR as a truly inclusive discipline that recognizes its multiple and diverse foundations. Reflecting the varied perspectives of both the active participants in the Chinese School of IR debates within China and the observers and critics outside China, this work will be of great interest to students and scholars of IR theory, Non-Western IR and Chinese Studies.

How does China see the rest of the world? One way to answer this question is to look at the work of China’s scholars in the field of International Relations (IR). This leads to a second question – to what extent do Chinese IR scholars influence Beijing’s foreign policy and outlook? The contributors to this book seek to answer these key questions, drawing on their own first- and second-hand experiences of involvement in scholarly IR debates in China. Discussing fundamental aspects of China’s foreign policy such as China’s view of the international structure, soft power projection, maritime disputes, and the principle of non-interference, this book provides insights into the hinterland of Chinese foreign policy-making. It is an invaluable reference for global IR scholars, especially those with a direct interest in understanding and predicting China’s actions and reactions on a range of international issues.

At the end of the Cold War, commentators were pondering how far Western ideas would spread; today, the debate seems to be how far Chinese ideas will reach. This volume examines Chinese international relations thought and practices, identifying the extent to which China's rise has provoked fresh geo-strategic and intellectual shifts within Asia.

This book intends to make sense of how Chinese leaders perceive China’s rise in the world through the eyes of China’s international relations (IR) scholars. Drawing on a unique, four-year opinion survey of these scholars at the annual conference of the Chinese Community of Political Science and International Studies (CCPSIS) in Beijing from 2014–2017, the authors examine Chinese IR scholars’ perceptions of and views on key issues related to China’s power, its relationship with the United States and other major countries, and China’s position in the international system and track their changes over time. Furthermore, the authors complement the surveys with a textual analysis of the academic publications in China’s top five IR journals. By comparing and contrasting the opinion surveys and textual analyses, this book sheds new light on how Chinese IR scholars view the world as well as how they might influence China’s foreign policy.

Despite Beijing’s repeated assurance that China’s rise will be "peaceful", the United States, Japan and the European Union as well as many of China's Asian neighbours feel uneasy about the rise of China. Although China’s rise could be seen as inevitable, it remains uncertain as to how a politically and economically powerful China will behave, and how it will conduct its relations with the outside world. One major problem with understanding China’s international relations is that western concepts of international relations only partially explain China’s approach. China’s own flourishing, indigeneous community of international relations scholars have borrowed many concepts from the west, but their application has not been entirely successful, so the work of conceptualizing and theorizing China’s approach to international relations remains incomplete. Written by some of the foremost scholars in the field of China studies, this book focuses on the work of Wang Gungwu - one of the most influential scholars writing on international relations - including topics such as empire, nation-state, nationalism, state ideology, and the Chinese view of world order. Besides honouring Wang Gungwu as a great scholar, the book explores how China can be integrated more fully into international relations studies and theories; discusses the extent to which existing IR theory succeeds or fails to explain Chinese IR behaviour, and demonstrates how the study of Chinese experiences can enrich the IR field.

This book examines the rise of China’s global profile in the international higher education community, as indicated by its rise of human capital, visibility in academic publications, world university ranking, expanding international cultural influence, and becoming a study-abroad destination of international students. It identifies the diplomatic role of higher education in China’s politico-economic development over a century, and how the role has been shaped by China’s self-identity as a great power in the world. Higher Education and China's Global Rise provides an understanding of linkage between higher education and China’s international influence, and a scholarly discussion of what Chinese higher education tells about China’s international relations, especially the aims, means, and nature of China’s rise as a global power. It will help to broaden perspectives surrounding debate about China’s rise that is currently dominated by Western international relations theory and comparative higher education discourses.

Bringing together leading scholars from Asia and the West, this book investigates how the dynamics of China’s rise in world politics contributes to theory-building in International Relations (IR). The book demonstrates how the complex and transformative nature of China’s advancement is also a point of departure for theoretical innovation and reflection in IR more broadly. In doing so, the volume builds a strong case for a genuinely global and post-Western IR. It contends that ‘non-Western’ countries should not only be considered potential sources of knowledge production, but also original and legitimate focuses of IR theorizing in their own right.