The Reform Movement, Nationalism, and China's Foreign Policy

1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
John Schrecker
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
New Approach ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy

The reform movement led by Kʻang Yu-wei initiated a major change in the Chinese approach to international affairs by developing what can be considered to be a nationalistic foreign policy. It is important to examine this development because of the insight which an analysis of the reformers' attitude toward international relations can provide into the reform movement as a whole, as well as into the crucial era of the late 1890's. In addition, such an investigation is useful because it can further our understanding of traditional Chinese conceptions of foreign policy by illuminating their relationship to the new approach.

Beyond National Interest: A Critical Evaluation of Reinhold Niebuhr's Theory of International Polities

1955 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Case Law ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Normative Structure ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Law And Science ◽  
Intellectual Environment

Until more or less recently, few students of international affairs have been preoccupied with the theoretical aspects of their field. To the extent that theory is distinguished from history, law and science, this is especially true. Historians have sought to uncover the facts and recite them with the most fastidious regard for the circumstances of time and place. Lawyers have tried to detect in the case law of international agreements and treaties the normative structure of international society. Political scientists have increasingly turned to new scientific methods and statistical techniques designed to measure public opinion and its influence on foreign policy. Few scholars have concerned themselves with the fundamental characteristics of international society or of good or bad foreign policy. In this intellectual environment any explicit, systematic theory of international relations has had to await a threefold development. It has required a broader conception of the proper methods for studying international affairs, a clearer identification of basic concepts and “laws,” and a more serious discussion of fundamental theoretical problems like the relation of theory to concrete problems.

More than Peripheral: How Provinces Influence China's Foreign Policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
pp. 735-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrye Wong
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
International Relations ◽  
South China ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy

AbstractMost analyses of China's foreign and security policies treat China as a unitary actor, assuming a cohesive grand strategy articulated by Beijing. I challenge this conventional wisdom, showing how Chinese provinces can affect the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. This contributes to existing research on the role of subnational actors in China, which has focused on how they shape domestic and economic policies. Using Hainan and Yunnan as case studies, I identify three mechanisms of provincial influence – trailblazing, carpetbagging, and resisting – and illustrate them with examples of key provincial policies. This analysis provides a more nuanced argument than is commonly found in international relations for the motivations behind evolving and increasingly activist Chinese foreign policy. It also has important policy implications for understanding and responding to Chinese behaviour, in the South China Sea and beyond.

The Future of International Relations

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Reich ◽  
Richard Ned Lebow
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Research ◽  
Material Power

This chapter revisits the concept of hegemony, elaborating some of the most important connections among them and assessing their implications for both U.S. foreign policy and international relations theory. Drawing on empirical findings laid out in the previous chapters, this chapter contends that hegemony is no longer applicable to international affairs, as its constituent functions are widely shared and exercised more by negotiation than fiat. This constellation requires a new conceptualization of influence. The chapter points to a new research agenda for the present century based on the recognition that we now live in a multipowered world—where actors combine social and material power to gain influence in varying ways—and not a unipolar world.

scholarly journals International Relations with Chinese Characteristics

2019 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950006
Author(s):  
Ralph Pettman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
The State ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
The Belt And Road

International relations, as currently construed, are multi-dimensional. They are also Euro-American, which means modern-day China had no hand in making them. It was obliged to adapt to the state-centered, marketeering, nationalistic realities with which it was confronted when it became independent. And adapt it did. It also, however, revised these realities by adopting its own approach. Its leaders first repudiated China’s traditional experiences, while reworking its world ones to promote their own ends. Later, however, they began to express admiration for the values and vision of their own culture and civilization. They began to articulate policies, like the Belt and Road Initiative, that were not only representative of Euro-American principles, such as international cooperation and free trade, but also representative of non-Euro-American principles, such as the so-called “tribute system”. The latter characterized China’s foreign policy approach for millennia. It still arguably demonstrates China’s willingness not only to accept — while reforming — those Euro-American practices imposed upon it, but also to repudiate — by revolutionizing — those very same practices.

How Credible are China’s Foreign Policy Signals? IR Theory and the Debate about China’s Intentions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon K Yoder
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
Assertive Behavior ◽  
Multiple Conditions

Abstract Scholars and policymakers currently lack systematic criteria for determining the credibility of China's foreign policy signals, which has produced widely divergent conclusions about its likely intentions. ‘China optimists’ view China’s cooperative signals as credible, while dismissing its noncooperative behaviors as unrepresentative of its broader preferences. Conversely, ‘China pessimists’ see China’s cooperative signals as non-credible misrepresentation and focus on China’s recent ‘assertive’ behavior. Drawing on theoretical scholarship on signaling and credibility in international relations, this article introduces general deductive criteria for assigning credibility to a rising state’s foreign policy signals. It then applies these criteria to evaluate the specific Chinese signals that optimists and pessimists have cited in support of their respective positions. The analysis finds that both optimists and pessimists have overlooked multiple conditions that have reduced the credibility of China’s cooperative and noncooperative foreign policy signals alike. This implies that far more uncertainty about China’s intentions is warranted than has been acknowledged on either side of the current debate.

scholarly journals Russian Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy: Meeting 21st Century Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-503
Author(s):  
Greg Simons
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Global Order ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
Internal Sources

Foreign policy is about setting the policy aims and goals of a given country in the competitive environment of international affairs. When analyzing it, one should pay attention to many factors, namely, economic and energy potential, military-technical means, the presence of trade and economic partners, political weight and state image in the international arena, state membership in various international organizations. You can also highlight a number of tools that also play a large role in the foreign policy of states. As a specific instrument of foreign policy, public diplomacy concerns the regulation and management of international relations with various global publics in order to realise those foreign policy aims and goals. Specifically, public diplomacy intends to create a positive reputation and brand of the country, simultaneously increasing the countrys soft power potential, which is based on external and internal sources. This article intends to track and analyse the challenges and the role played by Russian public diplomacy in terms of meeting the challenges of the countrys foreign policy agenda in the 21st century. These challenges have been in a state of transformation as the nature of the environment of international relations changed. As a result, Russian public diplomacy has needed to evolve along with the changes at the global level and consequently the shifting demands enshrined in the foreign policy concepts. There are several identified distinct political policy periods noted: attempts to integrate into the Western-led global order; cooling relations with the United States dominated global order; and preparing for multi-polar and a post-Western global order.

scholarly journals CHINA’S USE OF SOFT POWER AS A RISING POWER

Politeia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-80
Author(s):  
Farhana Paruk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Economic Diplomacy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hard Power ◽  
World Power ◽  
Global Power ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
Rising Power

China’s foreign policy has been isolationist for most of the past 100 years.During the past 30 years it has gradually shifted to becoming a global power in international relations; in the process it has joined several multilateral organisations and played a key role in establishing its prominence within these organisations.This article focuses on China’s use of “soft power” to conscientiously and strategically enhance its global appeal. China’s diplomatic strategy uses multilateralism, economic diplomacy and a good-neighbour policy as three forms of soft power in order to increase its attractiveness in the international community and, together with its hard power, to manage its rise as a world power.

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