China's Great Power Role: Formation, Characteristic and Factor

This chapter interprets the reforms by Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev in the context of their efforts to find alternative means to great power status—through social creativity. Deng launched the “reform and opening” policy, developing the economic foundation for China to play a great power role while exercising unparalleled diplomatic flexibility in dealing with some of China's most difficult territorial and sovereignty disputes. Gorbachev abandoned Russia's usual military methods for achieving great power status in favor of promoting a new, idealistic philosophy for a more peaceful and harmonious world—the “New Thinking.” While Gorbachev's ideas enjoyed remarkable success internationally, the failure of his domestic reforms, along with the rise of nationalism, contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union and an end to the Soviet Union's status as an innovator of new principles for world order.

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China’s diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East: the quest for a great-power role in the region

International Relations ◽

10.1177/0047117815619664 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 125-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Yoram Evron

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Middle East ◽

Great Power ◽

Political Involvement ◽

Future Role ◽

Unique Pattern ◽

Syrian Civil War ◽

Power Role ◽

Political Economic

Since the early 2010s, there have been mounting calls in China to intensify its role in the Middle East. But seeing the region as highly turbulent, Beijing seems to restrain its political involvement there. So what role does China actually strive for in the Middle East? To answer this question, the article first presents China’s discourse on its future role in the region; next, it analyzes China’s involvement in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Syrian civil war, focusing on three diplomatic initiatives it has made concerning these issues. The argument here is that China strives to be part of major processes in the Middle East and attempts to advance its values and interests there, but in a unique pattern of big-power involvement in the region, it tries to achieve this without intensive investment of political, economic, and military resources.

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Great Expectations: The EU's Social Role as a Great Power Manager

New Perspectives ◽

10.1177/2336825x1902700102 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 17-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

David M. Mccourt ◽

Andrew Glencross

Keyword(s):

Power Management ◽

Security Policy ◽

Social Role ◽

International System ◽

Great Powers ◽

Great Power ◽

Great Expectations ◽

Power Role ◽

Power Manager ◽

The Eu

Through the case of EU foreign and security policy we reconsider the concept of great power. According to common wisdom, the EU cannot be a great power, whatever the pronouncements of its top officials may be. We argue that ‘great power’ has been miscast in IR theory as a status rather than as a social role, and, consequently, that the EU can indeed be viewed as playing the great power role. Such a conceptual shift moves analytical attention away from questions of what the EU is – ‘big’, ‘small’, ‘great’, and so on – to what it is expected to do in international politics. We focus on the expectation that great powers engage in the management of the international system, assessing the EU as a great power manager in two senses: first, in the classical sense of ‘great power management’ of Hedley Bull – which centers on great powers’ creation of regional spheres of influence and the maintenance of the general balance of power – and second, in light of recent corrections to Bull's approach by Alexander Astrov and others, who suggest great power management has changed toward a logic of governmentality, i.e. ‘conducting the conduct’ of lesser states.

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The Arctic and Africa in China’s Foreign Policy: How Different Are They and What Does This Tell Us?

Arctic Review on Law and Politics ◽

10.23865/arctic.v12.2440 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (0) ◽

pp. 31

Author(s):

Christer Pursiainen ◽

Chris Alden ◽

Rasmus Bertelsen

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Identity Politics ◽

Chinese Foreign Policy ◽

Great Power ◽

The Arctic ◽

Chinese Investment ◽

Regional Strategies ◽

China’S Foreign Policy ◽

Power Role

The article discusses China’s policies in and towards the Arctic and Africa within a comparative perspective. To what extent is China’s policy adaptable to different conditions? What does this adaptability tell us about China’s ascendant great-power role in the world in general? What is the message to the Arctic and Africa respectively? The article concludes that China’s regional strategies aptly reflect the overall grand strategy of a country that is slowly but surely aiming at taking on the role of leading global superpower. In doing so, Chinese foreign policy has demonstrated flexibility and adaptive tactics, through a careful tailoring of its so-called core interests and foreign policy principles, and even identity politics, to regional conditions. This implies that regions seeking autonomy in the context of great power activism and contestation should develop their own strategies not only for benefiting from Chinese investment but also in terms of managing dependency on China and in relation to China and great power competition.

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