International society as a process: Institutions, identities, and China's peaceful rise

Chinese Journal of International Politics

Volumn 3, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 129-153

  Yaqing, Qin ^a  

^a CHINA FOREIGN AFFAIRS UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77957270901     PISSN: 17508916     EISSN: 17508924     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cjip/poq007     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W.W. Norton 2001).
2. Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981)
3. O. F. K. Organski and Jacet Kugler, The War Ledger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
4. Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979).
5. John Ikenberry, 'The Rise of China: Power, Institutions, and the Western Order', in Robert Ross and Zhu Feng, eds., China's Ascent: Power, Security, and the Future of International Relations (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2008), pp. 89-114.
6. See also John Ikenberry, 'The Rise of China and the Future of the West', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 87, No. 1 (2008), pp. 23-37.
7. Miao Hongni, 'Yingguo xuepai yu guoji shehui lilun ('The English School and Theory of International Society,') in Qin Yaqing, ed., Lixing yu guoji hezuo (Rationality and International Cooperation) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2008), pp. 139-68.
8. Barry Buzan, 'China in International Society: Is "Peaceful Rise" Possible?', The Chinese Journal of International Politics, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2010), pp. 5-36.
9. Buzan argues that the master primary institutions of international society are those fundamental, value-oriented, and constitutive of actors, including sovereignty, territoriality, diplomacy, great power management, nationalism, the market, equality of people, and environmental stewardship
10. See Barry Buzan, From International to World Society?: English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 167, 187, and 241.
11. Martha Finnemore, National Interest in International Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996)
12. Barry Buzan, 'Culture and International Society', International Relations, Vol. 86, No. 1 (2010), pp. 1-25.
13. Qin Yaqing, 'Guoji guanxi lilun de hexin wenti yu Zhongguo xuepai de shengcheng,' ('The Core Problematic and the Emerging of a Chinese School of IR,') Zhongguo Shehui Kexue (Social Sciences in China), No. 3 (2005), pp. 165-76.
14. Qin Yaqing, 'Guojia shenfen, zhanlue wenhua yu anquan liyi: guanyu Zhongguo yu guoji shehui guanxi de sange jiashe,' ('National Identity, Strategic Culture, and Security Interest: Three Hypotheses on the Relationship between China and International Society,') Shijie Jingji yu Zhengzhi (World Economics and Politics), No. 3 (2003), pp. 10-15.
15. Barry Buzan, 'China in International Society', p. 13.
16. Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society (London and New York: Routledge, 1992)
17. Barry Buzan, 'Culture and International Society', pp. 13, 21-2.
18. Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong uses the analogy of rice-straw bundles to describe the discreteness and individuality of Western society, whereby which each bundle stands alone, separate and unrelated to others in the field
19. See Fei Xiaotong, Xiangtu Zhongguo (Earthbound China) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2007)
20. David Hall and Roger Ames, Thinking from the Han (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998)
21. Richard Nisbett, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently... and Why (New York: Free Press, 2003), p. 11.
22. W. A. Callahan, 'Nationalizing International Theory: The Emergence of the English School and IR Theory with Chinese Characteristics', Paper Presented at IR Theory in the 21st Century: British and Chinese Perspective, Renmin University of China, Beijing. Critics, however, argue that it is unnecessary or even distorts the realities of international relations.
23. See R. J. Barry Jones, 'The English School and the Political Construction of International Society', in B. A. Roberson, ed., International Society and the Development of International Relations Theory (London and New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 232-4.
24. Geoffrey Stern, The Structure of International Society: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations (London and New York: Pinter, 1995), pp. 60-73.
25. Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society, pp. 135-262.
26. Barry Buzan, From International to World Society?: English School Theory and The Social Structure of Globalization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
27. Hedley Bull, The Anarchic Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), p. 13.
28. Hedley Bull, 'Notes on the Modern International System', pp. 1-2.
29. Cited in Tim Dunne, Inventing International Society: A History of the English School (New York: St. Martin's 1998), p. 126.
30. Barry Buzan, 'From International System to International Society: Structural Realism and Regime Theory Meet the English School', International Organization, Vol. 47, No. 3 (1993), pp. 327-52.
31. Barry Buzan, From International to World Society, pp. 45-62.
32. Tim Dunne, Inventing International Society, pp. 100-1.
33. Martin Wight, Systems of States (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1977)
34. R. J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
35. Barry Buzan, 'Culture and International Society', p. 11.
36. Barry Buzan, 'China in International Society', p. 17.
37. David Hall and Roger Ames, Thinking from the Han, p. 235.
38. See Roland Bleiker, 'Neorealist Claims in Light of Ancient Chinese Philosophy: the Cultural Dimension of International Theory', in Dominique Jacquin-Berdal, Andrew Oros, and Marco Verweij, eds., Culture in World Politics (New York: Millennium, 1998), pp. 89-115.
39. Bleiker argues, 'International theory and Western conceptualizing in general have traditionally been based on the juxtaposition of antagonistic bipolar opposites, such as rational/non-rational, good/evil, just/unjust, war/peace or chaos/order. On side of the paring is considered to be analytically and conceptually separate from the other. The relationship between the bipolar opposites generally expresses the superiority, dominance or normative desirability of one entity (such as peace) over the other (such as war).' p. 94.
40. Chung-ying Cheng argues that the Chinese dialectics is dialectics of harmony, for there is a common metaphysical ground among Confucianism and Daoism that the nature of the universe is harmony or a process of harmonization. Conflict is not ontologically true and its existence and occurrence are merely for the achievement of harmony in life. Conflict is by nature resolvable through the self-adjustment by the individual of itself and of the relations between itself and the context.
41. See Chung-ying Chung, Lun Zhongxi zhexue jingshen (On the Essence of Chinese and Western Philosophies) (Shanghai: Dongfang chuban zhongxin, 1995), pp. 182-4.
42. The Chinese classic Yi Jing, or the Book of Change, expresses this idea most effectively
43. See Chenshan Tian, Chinese Dialectics, trans. Xiao Yanzhong (Beijing: Renmin daxue chubanshe, 2008), pp. 21-41.
44. Tian believes that tongbian (continuity through change) is the essence of Chinese dialectics
45. Qin Yaqing and Wei Lin, 'Structure, Process, and the Socialization of Power: East Asian Community Building and the Rise of China', in Robert Ross and Zhu Feng, eds., China's Ascent, pp. 115-38.
46. Richard Nisbett, The Geography of Thought
47. The norm study has become a major topic of international relations and numerous articles have been published in leading international relations journals in recent years as constructivism has gained more influence. The most conspicuous feature of these studies is the mechanisms of norm spreading, or norms of the Western international society spread to other regions or countries.
48. See, for example, Jeffery Checkel, 'International Institutions and Socialization in Europe: Introduction and Framework', International Organization, Vol. 59, No. 4 (2005), pp. 801-26.
49. Alexander Gitsciu, 'Security Institutions as Agents of Socialization', International Organization, Vol. 59, No. 4 (2005), pp. 973-1012.
50. And Amitav Acharya, 'How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter', International Organization, Vol. 58, No. 2 (2004), pp. 239-75.
51. Qin Yaqing, 'Guanxi benwei yu guocheng jiangou: jiang Zhongguo linian zhiru guoji guanxi lilun,' ('Relationality and Processual Construction: Bringing Chinese Ideas into International Relations Theory', Zhongguo Shehui Kexue (Social Sciences in China), No. 4 (2009), pp. 5-20.
52. Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society, trans. Li Kang and Li Meng (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1989), pp. 89-93.
53. The Chinese dialectics maintains that A and non-A are mutually inclusive and transformable. This idea negates the Western view on interaction, which contends that interaction between A and non-A can change their behavior and the auxiliary attributes, but not the essential properties. On the contrary, Chinese dialectics asserts that A and non-A can engage each other in mutual transformation, including their essential properties. The Book of Change and Lao Zi/Dao De Jing, two of the most influential books on Chinese dialectics, express the idea that the opposites co-exist, defining, complimenting, and growing out of each other. For instance, 'Tangible and intangible create each other; difficult and easy define each other' (Lao Ti, Chapter 2), 'Full maturity implies decline' (Lao Zi, Chapter 55) and 'Good fortune lies within bad; bad fortune lurks within good.'(Lao Tsu, Chapter 58), etc.
54. Wendt assumes that the two have no social identities prior to their first meeting. I modify this assumption and entitle the two actors with social identities expressed in the institutions and norms from their respective cultures and societies.
55. See Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 326-35.
56. Stephen Krasner, 'Organized Hypocrisy in Nineteenth-Century East Asia', International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2003), pp. 173-97.
57. Ryder McKeown, 'Norm Regress: US Revisionism and the Slow Death of the Torture Norm', International Relations, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2009), pp. 5-25.
58. Qin Yaqing, 'National Identity, Strategic Culture, and Security Interest'
59. Robert Jervis, System Effects: Complexity in Political and Social Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997)
60. John Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968).
61. Different arguments have been made, for example, Johnston argues that China has long established a strategic culture of realpolitik, while its Confucian culture of idealpolitik is merely symbolic. Some other writers have disagreed with Johnston.
62. See Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995)
63. Anthony Loh, 'Deconstructing Cultural Realism,' in Wang Gengwu and Zheng Yongnian, eds., China and the New International Order (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 281-92.
64. Zhu Liqun, 'Guonei zhengzhi jincheng yu Zhongguo duiwai zhengce ji waijiao xingwei' ('Domestic Political Processes and China's Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Behavior,') in Qin Yaqing, et al., Guoji tixi yu Zhongguo waijiao (International System and China's Diplomacy) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2009), pp. 254-6.
65. Qin Yaqing, 'International Factors and China's External Behavior: Power, Interdependence, and Institutions', in Puline Kerr, Stuart Harris, and Qin Yaqing, eds., China's 'New Diplomacy': Tactical or Fundamental Change (New York: Palgrave, 2008), pp. 33-54.
66. For all the crises, see Zhang Tuosheng and Michael Swaine, eds., Zhong Mei anquan weiji guanli anli fenxi (Managing Sino-American Crises: Case Studies and Analysis) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2007).
67. Zhang Baijia, 'Gaibian ziji, yingxiang shijie,' ('Change Ourselves and Influence the World,') in Niu Jun, ed., Zhongguo waijio (China's Foreign Affairs) (Hong Kong: Peace Book, 2006), pp. 5-34.
68. Qin Yaqing, 'International Factors and China's External Behavior'
69. An interesting argument in recent studies of norm spreading and selection reflects that scholars have understood the mistake in separating the logic of appropriateness and the logic of consequences, for in reality they are inseparable and work on each other
70. See, for example, Markus Kornprobst, 'Argumentation and Compromise: Ireland's Selection of the Territorial Status Quo Norm', International Organization, Vol. 61, No. 1 (2007), pp. 69-98.
71. Qin Yaqing, 'Relationality and Processual Construction'
72. Deng Xiaoping, Deng Xiaoping wenxuan (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping), Vol. III (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1993), p. 373.
73. Chen Yun, Chen Yun wenxuan (Selected Works of Chen Yun), Vol. III (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1995), p. 245.