Search

Begin New Search Political Geography China Content Type Journal Article Publishing Institution Chatham House

31. China and the United States: a succession of hegemonies?

Author:
Ian Clark
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
This article is written in the general spirit of contributing to the development of the English School (ES) approach to International Relations (IR), and from the specific perspective of the work of Martin Wight. The literature on international society has greatly enriched our understanding of international order. However, it falls short in what it offers to one important contemporary debate. This deficiency results from its evasion of a central dilemma: how is the role of the Great Powers in managing international order best sustained when their number approximates to one single Great Power? Given the English School's attachment to the role of the Great Powers, it cannot afford to ignore this question. This article adapts ES theory to reflect a world characterized by a concentration of power. The concept of hegemony is central, and will be applied to the arguments about a putative succession between the United States and China. The case is made that their respective power trajectories need to be plotted, not just against relative material capabilities, but taking into account also the appeal of the international orders they come to represent.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
United States and China

32. President Obama at mid-term

Author:
Stefan Halper
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
This article provides an analysis of President Obama at mid-term. It looks at the mid-term elections from the perspective of the political issues that informed the debate, the implications of Republican control of the House of Representatives for both legislation and relations between the administration and Congress, and the policy areas where cooperation and possible progress is possible. The article looks at the Tea Party movement as a collection of single issue and multi-issue political groups ranging from 'nativists' to Christian fundamentalists to the eclectic and unprecedented combination of fiscal and social conservatives seen at Glen Beck's 'honoring America' event at the Washington Monument. This broad movement may be seen as a classical revitalization movement, not unlike those described by Anthony F. C. Wallace. It is opposed by another 'revitalization movement' namely the 'American renewal' promised by Obama as he ran for office in 2008. These countervailing narratives—in effect two different versions of America, one reflecting the Tea Party broadly conceived and the other reflecting Obama's 'promise'—are seeking political traction among independents. The implications of this struggle are momentous. The prevailing narrative will frame policy going forward on a range of domestic issues and on selected foreign policy questions, which will include the present debate on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia and the upcoming debate on China, which will have even further reaching effects. Finally, this article describes Obama's struggle to frame his policy successes and the ensuing debate in a favourable light. His opponents have sought to limit his progress by presenting him as 'the other', an effective but destructive technique that could have longer term effects on the domestic political discourse. However, the author remains an optimist; he believes, together with 50 per cent of Americans, the president is likable, logical and gives a good speech, and that he will be re-elected in 2012.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
China and America

33. The Cold War in retrospect

Author:
Geoffrey Warner
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The Cambridge history of the Cold War is a three-volume work by 75 contributors, mostly from the United States and the United Kingdom, and is intended as 'a substantial work of reference' on the subject. The bulk of the text deals, in frequently overlapping chapters, with the main protagonists of the conflict—viz. the United States, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China—and the areas in which they clashed. At the same time, it aims to go 'far beyond the narrow boundaries of diplomatic affairs', although it is not always successful in doing so. In analysing the origins of the Cold War, the contributors pay perhaps too much attention to ideology as opposed to geopolitics, a flaw which is made easier by the absence of sufficient historical background. On the other hand, the duration of the conflict and the failure of various attempts at détente is more successfully explained in terms of the zero-sum game nature of the conflict and its progressive extension from Europe across the rest of the world. When it comes to the end of the Cold War, the overall conclusion is that this came about through both a shift in the international balance of power following the Sino-Soviet split and the political and economic problems of the Soviet bloc. It is generally agreed that Mikhail Gorbachev's willingness to abandon old shibboleths both at home and abroad was a major factor in bringing about the end of the conflict. The three volumes, while not always an easy read, are the outcome of considerable research and expertise in both primary and secondary sources and will repay careful study.
Topic:
Cold War
Political Geography:
United States, China, United Kingdom, Europe, and Soviet Union

34. Is China a responsible stakeholder?

Author:
Amitai Etzioni
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
China has recently been criticized for not being a 'responsible stakeholder', not being a good citizen of the international community and not contributing to global public goods. China 'is refusing to be a responsible stakeholder in the international political system, cultivating, as it has been, good relations with some of the world's most odious regimes', according to Robert Kaplan, writing in The Atlantic. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal asserts that 'China won't be a responsible stakeholder' and acts as a 'free-rider'. Observing China's growing assertiveness in foreign policy and purported attempts to undermine the current liberal world order, Elizabeth Economy writes in Foreign Affairs that 'China is transforming the world as it transforms itself. Never mind notions of a responsible stakeholder; China has become a revolutionary power.'
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
China

35. International order after the financial crisis

Author:
Harold James
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The geography of power is at present being dramatically transformed, notably by the rapid economic rise of China. What makes international order legitimate in a world in which political and economic foundations are rapidly shifting? This article examines analogies and lessons from a previous transition, from a world order centered on Britain, to a US dominated global order. The article looks at two interpretations of the transition, one by E. H. Carr, the other by Charles Kindleberger. China is beginning to behave in the way expected of a Kindleberger hegemon, but also sees the possibilities of asserting power in a world that in the aftermath of 2008 looks much more like the chaotic and crisis-ridden interwar period as interpreted by E. H. Carr. The challenge for the management of the new international order will lie in the ability of China to embrace the universalistic vision that underpinned previous eras of stability, in the nineteenth century and in the late twentieth century.
Topic:
Economics and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Britain, United States, and China

36. US missile defence and China's nuclear posture: Changing dynamics of an offence-defence arms race

Author:
Baohui Zhang
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
This article examines the rising prominence of strategic nuclear deterrence in Sino-US relations. China is the only major nuclear power that has been actively expanding its offensive capabilities. Its nuclear modernization has inevitably caused concerns in the United States. The article suggests that China's nuclear programme is driven significantly by US missile defence, which has fundamentally altered the incentive structures for Chinese nuclear deterrence. The article also assesses the latest Chinese perception of US strategic adjustment under the Obama administration and its potential impact on arms control. It reveals that recent measures by the United States to restrain its missile defense could be conducive for achieving a strategic nuclear understanding between the two countries. The article then suggests a number of concrete actions for China and the United States to realize such an understanding.
Topic:
Nuclear Power
Political Geography:
United States and China

37. The 'China model' and the global crisis: from Friedrich List to a Chinese mode of governance?

Author:
Shaun Breslin
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The global financial crisis reinvigorated ongoing debates over whether China has its own distinct and separate 'model' of political economy and/or development. There is much that connects this Chinese model with previous systems of national political economies; partly in terms of specific policy preferences, but also in terms of shared basic conceptions of the distribution of power in the global order. Like these previous systems, China has come to stand as an example of an alternative to following dominant (neo-)liberal models of development. In this respect, what the China model is not and what China does not stand for might be more important than what it actually is and what it does stand for. However, the idea of a coherent and unique Chinese model has considerable purchase, and is both informed by and also feeds into considerations of China's uniqueness and difference from the norms, ideas and philosophies that dominate the rest of the world
Political Geography:
China

38. China and global oil: Vulnerability and opportunity

Author:
Roland Dannreuther
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
China has grown increasingly dependent on imports of oil and, as a consequence, has become a major and very visible player in the international energy markets. For a country which has traditionally been strongly committed to the principle of self-reliance, this dependence on foreign oil has been a source of vulnerability and anxiety. But it has also been a strategic opportunity for China to chart its own ambitions and objectives as a global economic and political actor. This article addresses the various ways in which China has incorporated its energy import needs within its foreign policy. There are, it is argued, three dimensions to this. There is, first, integration and cooperation with the West and other large oil-importing countries and a shift away from neo-mercantilism to a growing reliance on international markets. Second, there is a complementary strategy of balancing, which seeks to develop the energy resources close to its borders, in Russia and Central Abstracts Asia, which are not so vulnerable to western intervention. And third, there is the construction, though preliminary and nascent at the moment, of a hegemonic order which challenges the US and the West in the critical maritime routes from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean and through to the Persian Gulf region
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, China, India, and Asia

39. The new resource politics: Can Australia and South Africa accommodate China?

Author:
Mark Beeson, Mills Soko, and Wang Yong
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The material transformation of the Chinese economy is forcing a concomitant process of political adjustment—and not just in China. Other states are being forced to accommodate the 'rise of China'. In this context, this article first presents a comparative analysis of China's impact on two countries, Australia and South Africa, which have little in common other than a wealth of natural resources and a possible status as middle powers; this is a particularly useful exercise because these states are geographically distant and have very different political structures and general developmental histories. Second, the authors consider how China's bilateral ties look from a Chinese perspective in these two very different relationships. Such an analysis serves as a reminder that resource dependency is a two-way street. The article argues that underlying material realities are constraining and to some extent determining the domestic and foreign policies of three very different states that otherwise have little in common
Political Geography:
China, South Africa, and Australia

40. Chinese Competition - Learning From Japan: China Challenge

Author:
Simon Collinson and Bridgette Sullivan-Taylor
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
IN THE 1970S AND 1980S THERE WAS a widespread fear in the west of Japanese economic superiority. Unprecedented growth in its gross domestic product (GDP), exports and outward foreign direct investment suggested an alternative model of market capitalism that was out-performing the United States and European economies. High-profile articles and books fed this fear and research efforts tried to identify what was different about Japan and how such differences might convey sustained competitive advantages.
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, and China