The PLA and Chinese National Security Policy: Leaderships, Structures, Processes

1996 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 360-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Swaine
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Major Power ◽  
The West ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Chinese Case ◽  
Internal Change ◽  
Territorial Claims

China's rise as a major power constitutes one of the most significant strategic events of the post-Cold War period. Many policy-makers, strategists and scholars express significant concern over the implications of China's growing military and economic capabilities for the future security environment in Asia and beyond. Such concern derives in part from an anticipation of the systemic security problems that have historically accompanied the emergence of a new power. In the Chinese case, however, these anxieties are greatly compounded by the rapidity of internal change under way in China, the general lack of knowledge about Chinese strategic ambitions, the existence of many unresolved Chinese territorial claims, the intense suspicion and even hostility toward the West harboured by China's leadership, and China's internal political and social instabilities.

Continuity and Change in British Thinking about Nuclear Weapons

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Croft
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Mind Set ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Constant Argument

For almost fifty years there has been constant argument between those who have supported the development and possession of nuclear weapons by Britain and those opposed to those policies. This article argues that there has been a continuity in the arguments made by policy-makers and their critics, both operating within an unchanging series of linked assumptions forming a paradigm or mind-set. This article sets out the character of the assumptions of the orthodox and alternative thinkers, as they are termed in the article, examining their coherence and differences, particularly during the cold war. It concludes by attempting to draw out some implications for the British security policy debate in the post-cold war period.

The China Factor in the U.S.-Japan Alliance: The Myth of a China Threat

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshihide Soeya
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Dual Identity ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Security Actor ◽  
China Threat ◽  
The U.S

This paper argues that “China threat” was largely a myth and that the China factor was not the critical factor leading to the re-affirmation process of the U.S.-Japan alliance in the mid-1990s. It took the 1994 Korean crisis for this to materialize. The China factor was important only as a general background, and the role of the U.S.-Japan alliance in dealing with the rise of China was implicit, remaining in the domain of managing shifting major power relations after the Cold War rather than being directed against the myth of a “China threat.” The paper also argues that preoccupation with Japan as an independent security pole is an important source of confusion about the nature of Japan's security policies and its profile therein, which, as before, will continue to be premised on the U.S.-Japan alliance. It explains actual records of Japanese security behaviors as a series of attempts to cope with the dual identity as a security actor. Japan's readjustment to the post-Cold War security environment, founded upon the re-affirmation of the U.S.-Japan alliance, was a clear case in point.

Defence and Security Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 567-583
Author(s):  
Thanos Dokos
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Threat Assessment ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The chapter begins with a very concise review of Greece’s defence and security policies from the end of the Second World War to the end of the Cold War. The analysis then focuses on the post-Cold War era, and especially the transformation of Greece’s security environment after 2011 (as a result of the Arab revolts, but also the Ukraine conflict, Balkan instability, and the multi-dimensional European crisis) and the emergence of new risks and threats in the Eastern Mediterranean. In this context, security challenges and priorities and Greece’s security prospects in this fluid regional and international environment are presented and assessed. The key argument is that the Turkey factor remains dominant in Greece’s threat assessment and the driving force behind most foreign and defence-policy initiatives. Greek security strategy is also examined in a comparative context, with European countries of similar size. A discussion of Greece’s contemporary geostrategic value is followed by Greece’s participation and possible role in the context of the EU and NATO. Additional issues examined include the defence and security decision-making mechanism and the main institutions and actors involved, and the evolution and (in)flexibility of defence expenditures. The chapter also assesses the state of the art regarding research and analysis in the field of Greek security policy.

Informing the Integration Debate with Recent Experience

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Minear
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Local Perceptions ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Political Conditionality ◽  
The Given ◽  
Oriented Research

The overriding challenge faced by policy-makers in the post–Cold War era is not, as many would have us believe, the achievement of integration of humanitarian action into the prevailing politico-military context. It is rather the protection of its independence. The debate, rather than focusing on fitting humanitarian action more snugly into the given political framework, should explore how to ensure the indispensable independence of humanitarian actors from that framework.The experience of the Humanitarianism and War Project, an action-oriented research and publications initiative studying humanitarian activities in post–Cold War conflicts, suggests the essential elements of such independence. They include structural protection for humanitarian action against political conditionality; more sensitivity to local perceptions regarding humanitarian actors and action; tighter discipline within the humanitarian sector by those providing assistance and protection; increased attention to the origins of aid resources and of the personnel administering them; greater participation and ownership by local institutions and leaders in crisis countries; and an agreed overarching political framework that gives higher priority to human security.

scholarly journals The Sino-Russian Relationship: Fellow Travellers in the West-dominated World

2018 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 1197-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Kaczmarski
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Dividing Line

A decade ago, Beijing's relations with Moscow were of marginal interest to China scholars. Topics such as growing Sino-American interdependence-cum-rivalry, engagement with East Asia or relations with the developing world overshadowed China's relationship with its northern neighbour. Scholars preoccupied with Russia's foreign policy did not pay much attention either, regarding the Kremlin's policy towards China as part and parcel of Russia's grand strategy directed towards the West. The main dividing line among those few who took a closer look ran between sceptics and alarmists. The former interpreted the post-Cold War rapprochement as superficial and envisioned an imminent clash of interests between the two states. The latter, a minority, saw the prospect of an anti-Western alliance.

scholarly journals The Russian Federation and Reshaping a Post-Cold War Order

Politeja ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5(62)) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Bryc
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Crimean Peninsula ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
International Standing ◽  
Munich Security Conference

Russia attempts to revise a Western-led liberal world order. However, challenging the West seems to be a strategy aimed at improving Russia’s international standing. This strategy is undoubtedly ambiguous as Russia challenges the West, particularity the United States, and looks for a rapprochement at the same time.The Russian Federation abandoned the West in 2014 as a result of the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula what constituted breaking international law, andengagement into the war in the East Ukraine. Nevertheless, the milestone was not 2014, but 2008 when Russia had decided for the first time to use its militar yforce against Georgia and indirectly against the growing Western military and political presence in this post-Soviet republic. This game changer was hardly a surprise, because several signals of a desire to challenge the Western-led world order had appeared in the past at least twice in president Putin’s speeches in 2007 at Munich Security Conference and in 2014 during Valdai Club session in Sochi. This article seeks to provide a take in the discussion about the way Russia has been trying to reshape the post-Cold War order. This paper probes the notion that Russia has become a revisionist state trying to shape a post-Western world order. Besides, there are a few questions to be answered, first of all whether anti-Westernism is in fact its goal or rather an instrument in regaining more effective impact on international politics and how it may influence the post-ColdWar order despite its reduced political and economic potential.

Conclusion

After Lavinia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
First Century ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Northern European ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Legal Rationality

This concluding chapter reflects on marriage in the contemporary West, noting that it has become an affective arrangement. In Britain and the northern European countries that still retain a constitutional form of monarchy, twenty-first-century royalty now prefer their own subjects as marriage partners, even if it means marrying a commoner like Kate Middleton. To the extent that these marriages to indigenous commoners have any bearing on foreign policy, they reaffirm the nationalist sentiments of the post-Westphalian state. The chapter argues that, despite all the legal rationality, global peace remains as elusive now as it was when Europeans tried to settle their quarrels through interdynastic marriage. It suggests that the opposition between the West and its post-Cold War enemies has brought the matter of gender and the place of women once more to the center of international relations.

Contrast in the Security Concepts of China and the EU: The Perspective of a PLA Officer

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHEN BO
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Society ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Absolute Good ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
The Eu

This chapter presents the perspectives of officers in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). It provides an analytical review of the two security concepts that have emerged in response to the post Cold War order. It holds that China's security policy is designed first and foremost to safeguard the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the nation under the paradoxical conditions of globalization. Although recognizing the mutuality of security, the purpose of China's policy is to gain other actors' support for the defence of China's sovereign interests. The EU's core interests are defined in terms of ‘a stronger international society, well functioning international institutions and a rule-based international order’. This also recognizes the mutuality of security but does not place sovereignty as the absolute good: if international society, institutions, and order require the mitigation of sovereignty, then Europeans will accept it.

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