The rise of China in Kenya’s foreign relations

Author(s):  
Samuel M. Makinda

In the past few decades, Kenya has benefitted considerably from its improved relations with China. Chinese investments in infrastructure, education, and ICT have opened up greater opportunities for development. Moreover, the availability of diverse and affordable goods has enabled many Kenyans to engage in more commercial activities. This economics-driven diplomacy has been shaped by Kenyan and Chinese political leaders, shifts in the structure of the international system after the Cold War, and the evolving interests of both countries. However, Kenya’s diplomacy is based on a weak knowledge base, as few Kenyan policy makers speak Mandarin and understand China’s diplomatic history. Moreover, China’s investment patterns, which differ from those of Kenya’s traditional Western partners, could negatively impact on Kenya’s commercial domination of eastern Africa. Thus, while Kenya–China relations have promoted some of Kenya’s policy objectives, they also contain the potential to undermine some of Kenya’s other long-range goals.

Author(s):  
Michael Cox

This chapter provides a broad overview of the international system between the end of the cold war— when many claimed that liberalism and the West had triumphed— through to the second decade of the twenty-first century, when the West itself and the liberal economic order it had hitherto promoted appeared to be coming under increased pressure from political forces at home and new challenges abroad. But before we turn to the present, the chapter will look at some of the key developments since 1989—including the Clinton presidency, the George W. Bush administration’s foreign policy following the attacks of 9/11, the 2008 financial crash, the crisis in Europe, the transitions taking place in the global South, the origins of the upheavals now reshaping the Middle East, the political shift from Barack Obama to Donald Trump, the emergence of Asia, and the rise of China. The chapter then concludes by examining two big questions: first, is power now shifting away from the West, and second, to what extent does the current wave of populism in the West threaten globalization and the liberal order?


Author(s):  
Catharin Dalpino

The ancient cultural threads that linked Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar—the so-called Indianized states in Southeast Asia—have long since frayed. Shifts beginning in the 1990s signaled yet another new regional order, which is still being formed. The end of the Cold War, the Cambodian peace agreement and the subsequent enlargement of ASEAN, the rise of China and India, a modest renewal of U.S. interest in Southeast Asia, and Myanmar’s reform process have forged new relations with old adversaries but also created new (or renewed) tensions. This chapter examines the transformation of the foreign relations of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar in this new regional environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Fall 2021) ◽  
pp. 231-258
Author(s):  
Kemal İnat ◽  
Melih Yıldız

In this article, the rise of China is discussed in the light of economic and military data, and what the challenge from China means for the global leadership of the U.S. is analyzed. Changes in the indicators of the U.S. and China’s economic and military power over the last 30-40 years are examined and an answer is sought for the following question: What will the consequences of China’s rise be in terms of the international political system? To answer this question, similar ‘rise and challenge’ precedents are discussed to contextualize and analyze and the present challenge China poses. This article concludes that while improving its global status, China has been taking the previous cases’ failed challenges into consideration. China, which does not want to repeat the mistakes made by Germany and the Soviet Union, is hesitant to pursue an aggressive military policy and tries to limit its rivalry with the U.S. in the economic area. While Chinese policy of avoiding direct conflict and focusing on economic development has made it the biggest economic rival of the U.S, the rise of China initiates the discussions about the end of the U.S. and West-led international system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Ngoc Anh

The article analyzes the US’ containment strategy against China at international system level, including the reason, main actions, and impact of this strategy on the US-China relations. The article supposes the main reason for making the strategy is the US’ desire to preserve her hegemony over the rise of China. The strategy consists of five main moves: economic restraint, technology restraint, restraint of territorial sovereignty ambition, assault on soft power, military deterrence, and prevention of coalition alliances. These moves will make the US-China relationship increasingly tense. However, except for the excess of the limit of restraining territorial sovereignty ambition, especially related to Taiwan, the other moves may make the US-China relations tense, but will not drive these two countries to war.


Daedalus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-132
Author(s):  
James Cameron

Most analyses of arms control during the Cold War focus on its role in maintaining strategic stability between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, history shows that the superpowers' search for strategic stability is insufficient to explain the roots and course of negotiations. This essay argues that arms control was used as one tool in a broader strategy of war prevention, designed to contain a series of challenges to U.S. and Soviet dominance of the international system that both sides worried could upset bipolarity and increase the chances of conflict between them. At the same time, U.S. policy-makers balanced this joint superpower interest with Washington's extended deterrent commitment to its allies, which ultimately upheld the integrity of the system as a whole. The essay concludes that today's leaders should integrate arms control into a more comprehensive strategy of political accommodation fit for twenty-first-century conditions.


1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gourevitch

The international system is not only an expression of domestic structures, but a cause of them. Two schools of analysis exploring the impact of the international system upon domestic politics (regime types, institutions, coalitions, policies) may be distinguished: those which stress the international economy, and those which stress political-military rivalry, or war. Among the former are such arguments as: late industrialization (associated with Gershenkron); dependencia or core-periphery arguments (Wallerstein); liberal development model (much American writing in the 50s and 60s); transnational relation-modernization (Nye, Keohane, Morse); neo-mercantilists (Gilpin); state-centered Marxists (Schurmann). Arguments stressing the role of war include those which focus on the organizational requirements of providing security (Hintze, Anderson), the special nature of foreign relations (classical political theory), territorial compensation (diplomatic history), and strains of foreign involvement (analysis of revolutions). These arguments provide the basis for criticism of much of the literature which uses domestic structure as an explanation of foreign policy, in particular those which (such as the strong-state weak-state distinction) tend, by excessive focus on forms, to obscure the connection between structures and interests, and the role of politics. These arguments also permit criticism of the notion of a recent fundamental discontinuity in the nature of international relations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
AISDL

“China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world” - Napoleon Bonaparte. The rise of China is a phenomenon in the 21st century. The rise of China is one of the most significant contributions to the restructuring of the world order as well as the Asian Pacific order. Although the United States remains one of the most powerful countries in the world, its regional and global hegemony has been considerably challenged by China. This paper contains three main objectives: (1) to present an overview on the miraculous growth of Chinese economy; (2) to identify the challenges from China’s rise posing on the regional and international system; and (3) to make an analysis on the case of the South China Sea disputes in order to clarify the reaction of the system towards the China’s rise.


Author(s):  
Nasa'i Muhammad Gwadabe

The apparent eroding in the hegemonic power of the United States and the sustained growth of China has triggered debate as to whether the rise of China will be peaceful or conflictual. Structural realism posits that the world is characterised by the anarchic ordering principle in which there is no central authority sitting above the states. Therefore, the absence of a “leviathan” on the international system automatically makes every state equal on the system which created an atmosphere of competition for the maximisation of power for survival. On a similar line of reasoning, the Power Transition theory as a variant theory within realism postulates that when the international system is structured based on the principle of hierarchy, peace will reign. It means that when international relations are regulated and influenced by a dominant power, the international system becomes stable. But the emergence of a dissatisfied powerful nation to challenge the hegemon usually ends up in war. Based on this assumption, Power Transition theorists argued that the rise of China to rival the dominance of the United States could not be peaceful. The Power Transition theory has influenced many academics to have the belief that the two nations will end up in “Thucydides’ Trap”. This belief has aggravated the matter beyond the reasonable level and has instilled panic in the mind of foreign policymakers which could jeopardise world peace and international cooperation. Hence, this paper aims to critically evaluate the deficiency of the Power Transition theory in the 21st century in explaining the current United States-China relations and the prospect of peace or war between the two nations using process tracing. Accordingly, in this paper, it is argued that in the 21st century, an armed confrontation between the United States and China is highly unlikely. Because in today’s world, nations (including the United States and China) are intertwined by the forces of globalisation which created inexorable economic interdependence. Additionally, there is rapid advancement in military technology and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction which came with the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Consequently, there is a need to revisit the Power Transition theory to accommodate contemporary factors. The inclusion of the current variables into the Theory will make it applicable and adequately fit in the discourse of international relations and global politics of the 21st-century international system.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Setia Budhi

This paper explains about the United States’ containment strategy towardChina, the argue that the United States’ strategy of containment aimsto contain the China’s rise phenomenon. After the Cold War, China hasdeveloped as a powerful country which has capability to threaten theUnited States’ ‘sole hegemon’ status. Containment is the chosen strategy tokeep Washington at the top of the hierarchy of international system. Theauthor divide this paper into three sections, the first show the relationsthe United States builds to make containment works. Then in the sectiontwo, the author explain the United States’ containment strategy withJohn Mearsheimer’s offensive realism theory. The last section, I end thispaper with conclusion that consists of important points of the paper.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document