Grand Strategy and the (Re)Shaping of Greece–China Relations

This paper assesses China–Greece relations since 2006, examining them as part of China’s Grand Strategy, and Greece’s perception of them. The first aim of the paper is to provide an overview of China–Greece relations in connection with its long- and short-term goals. In essence, it focuses on understanding whether a Chinese Grand Strategy towards Greece exists. Second, it aims to examine the perception of Greeks over China’s foreign policy towards Greece. The intended contribution of the paper is to illustrate the response of national discourses over China’s increased presence in both the global sphere and specific countries. By offering the Greek perspective, we ultimately seek to provide a more balanced foundation for the ongoing scholarly and policy debate.

China–Iran Strategic Partnership: Implications for India

China–Iran strategic deal signed on March 27, 2021 has initiated an interesting debate in the regional political discourse. Many area study experts view it as a game changer that has the potential to revamp the complexion of the regional politics. The US sanctions against Iran forced Tehran to move towards a historic deal with China to mitigate the US influence in the region. Ostensibly, global and regional politics are being divided into two blocks underpinned by the US and China. Iran under Chinese influence is jumping at the opportunity, not only capitalizing on the Chinese US$400 billion to reinvigorate its fragile economy but also availing itself of the window of international opening amid isolation. India, on the other hand, notwithstanding its strategic partnership with the US, does not want growing Chinese influence in Iran as well as in the region since it would damage its strategic interests, halting it from Chabahar Port, connectivity with Central Asia and oil import from Iran. China–Iran deal also has a good omen for Pakistan as both Iran and Pakistan clearly incline towards China for explicit reasons. China will leave no stone unturned to make the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a success story, even connecting with Iran in the foreseeable future. With this backdrop, this paper attempts to assess the implications of the said deal for India and also shed lights on the emerging geopolitical and geoeconomic changes consequent to the deal.

China’s Engagement in COVAX: From Hesitation to Active Participation

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the whole world has suffered great losses in personnel and economy. While there had been encouraging news about the research, development and production of several COVID-19 vaccines in 2020, it was imperative to make the vaccines accessible to all. To address this issue, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, together with other organizations, launched the COVAX initiative in April 2020 and set an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) mechanism to contribute to it. Until October 2020, China had not officially signed any related contracts or agreements with Gavi to join the initiative. However, there has since been a shift in China’s attitude from hesitation towards active participation. In the early stages, China’s concern over problems within the AMC mechanism, success in combating COVID-19 and concern on the participation conditions of COVAX caused it to take a cautious stance towards this initiative. However, upholding the flag of multilateralism, China has committed to offering international public goods, assisting in coordinating the equitable distribution of vaccines and promoting Chinese-made vaccines internationally. These factors have motivated China to join the initiative actively.

Emerging Complexity of Nuclear South Asia

South Asia is a geo-political system which has its unique security characters. The emerging complex nature of a system could lead either to the security or insecurity of that system. India and Pakistan are the emerging nuclear powers of South Asia. The nuclear doctrines and behavior of India and Pakistan promote the advancement of their nuclear programs in both strategic and civil domains. Both countries desire stability, the balance of power and security through the possession of nuclear options. However, the author argues that South Asia’s existing nuclear environment and its emerging complexity have produced insecurity and instability in the region at large. This paper is an attempt to identify the complexity of actors and behaviors and their emerging threats to the security of the region. There is also a lack of literature to portray the nuclear risk that the non-nuclear states face in South Asia. This paper tries to fill that gap as well.

Human Rights Protection in UN Peace Operations: A Case Study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Despite the presence of UN peace operations for more than two decades, the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still dire. This article illustrates the types of violations of human rights and hindrances to protect human rights in MONUSCO. Methodologically being a qualitative study, it is based on existing literature and key informant interviews. Killings of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, child soldiers, war crimes and crimes against humanity are major types of human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study argues that due to structural challenges, like the bureaucratic structure of MONUSCO, inadequacy of budget and juristic limitation of the Peacekeeping Force, and operational challenges, like challenges in the protection of civilians and UN personnel, the paucity of logistics and manpower and also gender-based violence by some UN personnel and peacekeepers in MONUSCO, the UN forces failed to maintain and defend human rights properly.

Variation in Parliamentary Power: Measurement and Explanation

Democratization is a century-long hot issue in comparative politics. Parliament functions as the central system of democracy. Studies on comparative parliament can shed light on the politics of democratization. The core issue in comparative parliament is that how to explain variation in parliamentary power. This study reviews the burgeoning literature on parliamentary power and focuses on the measurement and explanation of variation in parliamentary power. A small but growing amount of studies provide three theoretical perspectives, namely political institution, the incentive structure of parliament members, and political party. All those propositions emphasize the significance of the political party. As for the relationship between the political party and committees in parliament, there are two conflicting versions: substitution thesis and agent thesis. Based on these reviews, this paper puts forward the issues of future research in comparative parliament.

Demystifying China’s Involvement in African Peace and Security Architecture

Until the last decade, Peace and Security (PAS) issues were among the least discussed topic in the budding China–Africa relations. However, China’s recent involvement in African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) has attracted critical review. Critics aver that China’s expanding security engagement in Africa is a clear manifestation of China’s willingness to use its growing military to challenge the global status quo. This paper reviews China’s involvement in APSA to ascertain whether the realities of China’s PAS engagement in Africa support the ‘China Threat’ narrative (zhōngguó wēixié lùn). The paper establishes that, albeit the considerable flexibility in China’s foreign security policies, many of its aspects are still guided by the policy constraints of sovereignty, non-interference, and non-aggression. By upholding these policy constraints, China’s involvement in APSA has occurred on a constructive interactive basis and principally within the multilateral frameworks and mandate of regional and international bodies. However, the novelty is that China has taken an endogenous viewpoint in its security engagement with Africa that is hinged on the idea that Africa’s problems must be confronted with African solutions and capabilities. This is manifested in the increasing level of functional security exchanges and capacity-building activities to enhance African countries’ security capabilities to confront common security challenges independently.

China’s Engagements in Africa: Is China a “Partner” or a “Predator”?

From modest beginnings in 1960, China has expanded its foreign assistance and investments in Africa and has recently become a highly visible actor in Africa’s lending landscape. With China’s financial support, African countries are transitioning from “poor countries” to “developing countries”, and China’s investments in Africa have made the continent more attractive to other external investors. However, China’s engagements in Africa are labeled in extreme connotations as either being the best economic “Partner” that Africa has had since the post-colonial era or just the latest “Predator” coming to pillage Africa’s remaining natural resources. Why such connotations? Why do media around the world, especially Western media, criticize China’s engagements in Africa? Is it because China has threatened Western countries’ interests in Africa or is it about the overhyped debate about African countries’ high “external debt” problem? Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper examines those critics who argue that recognizing China’s engagements in Africa is the first step toward understanding China’s “peaceful rise” and hopefully stymie further false accusations.

Understanding the Belt and Road Initiative from the Relational Perspective

Western International Relations (IR) theoriests have examined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through different theoretical lenses and produced inconclusive interpretations. This paper suggests that the relational theory of world politics, developed by the Chinese IR scholar Qin Yaqing, tends to look at IR from a different perspective. The logic of relationality and the relational concepts, such as relational management, relational governance and relational system, are applied to analyze the BRI. First, the relational perspective sheds light on Beijing’s efforts to manage and improve the relations with its neighbouring countries, rather than to pursue regional domination and compete with Washington. Second, the relational perspective suggests relational governance as a new possibility of regional governance to facilitate regional development and cooperation, which is different from the Western rule-based governance. Last, should BRI be carried out successfully, there might exist a relational international system in Asia, which is also different from the Westphalian nation-state system.

Why are Female Professors Willing to Have a Second Child in China? A Case Study of Chengdu

This study explores female professors’ willingness to have a second child in Chengdu. Based on a qualitative study, this article focuses on those who have had at least one child and examine their fertility intentions, childbirth behavior and influencing factors of second-child fertility according to their occupational characteristics and academic achievements. In-depth interviews with 24 female professors in Chengdu were conducted in 2018–2020. It finds that their reproductive choices are the cross-effect result of state policy, external support and personal condition. Their educational experience also plays an important role in deciding their choice of having two children. This research aims to shed light on Chinese women’s reproductive intention and fertility behavior and tries to offer policy suggestions under the two-child policy in China.