scholarly journals Building a 'Harmonious World': A Mission Impossible?

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zou Keyuan

In September 2005, President Hu Jintao called for a 'harmonious world' at the summit for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Following his call, the Chinese government issued a white paper on China's peaceful development road, in which 'building a harmonious world' is valued as the 'lofty goal' in taking the path of 'peaceful development'. In the latest Five-Year Plan (2011–2015), Chinese foreign policy continues to hold high the banner of peace, development and cooperation and to build a harmonious world featured by enduring peace and common prosperity together with other countries in the world. This article will examine the doctrine of 'harmonious world' to see whether it is practical in conducting international relations between China and the rest of the world and how China should adjust its foreign policy thinking to better cope with the more complicated world. It is timely and meaningful to discuss the topic at the time when China changes its leadership.1

2021 ◽  
pp. 186810262110186
Author(s):  
Patrik Andersson

Research confirms that China is becoming more engaged in the Arctic. However, international relations scholarship often extrapolates from relatively few instances of activity to wide-ranging claims about Chinese priorities. Fortunately, Chinese political discourse is organised by labels that allow us to study how the Arctic is classified and ranked along China’s other foreign policy priorities. This article analyses two such classifications – “important maritime interest” and “strategic new frontier,” exploring how they have come about, what they mean, and how they add political priority to the Arctic. It argues that hierarchies are constructed in two ways: by adding gradients and by including/excluding categories of priority. It views categories as performative: they not only convey information about character and relative importance of interests but are also used for achieving different objectives. By focusing on foreign policy classifications, the article contributes to a more nuanced and precise understanding of China’s Arctic interests.


Author(s):  
Sunil Khilnani

How should India’s rise be understood in the framework of international relations and a changing global order? This chapter assesses India’s jostle for an advantageous position on the world stage through three sets of lenses: the attempt to voice the civilizational values of a nascent nation; the expressions of the economic and developmental needs of a poor citizenry; and the self-professed aims and pursuits of the interests of a sovereign state. It then outlines some of the challenges in defining India’s international position, and explores possible means through which these can be navigated. In order to optimize the rewards of India’s interactions with the global order, deft management of all three approaches is necessary, enabled by a recognition of the fact that its greatest strength lies in the ability to articulate a democratically validated foreign policy.


Author(s):  
David M. Malone ◽  
C. Raja Mohan ◽  
Srinath Raghavan

India has emerged as a leading voice in global affairs in the past two decades. Its fast-growing domestic market largely explains the ardour with which Delhi is courted by powers great and small. India is also becoming increasingly important to global geostrategic calculations, being the only Asian country with the heft to counterbalance China over time. Nevertheless, India’s foreign policy has been relatively neglected in the existing literature. ThisHandbook, edited by three widely recognized students of the topic, provides an extensive survey of India’s external relations. The authors include leading Indian scholars and commentators of the field and several outstanding foreign scholars and practitioners. They address factors in Indian foreign policy flowing from both history and geography and also discuss key relationships, issues, and multilateral forums through which the country’s international relations are refracted.


2018 ◽  
pp. 603-612
Author(s):  
Serhii Esaulov

The author raises the issue of settling conflicts around the world and discusses modern attempts to establish law and order. Particular attention is paid to the intricate relations between Hungary and Ukraine. With Russia’s aggression against Ukraine there was ruined a system of international relations, which provided for the rule of law, the right to settle disputes without applying military tools, force or threats. Russia initiated a new precedent of impunity, insolent violation of the fundamental norms of international law, and demonstrated the world how the borders may be redrawn as one sees fit and “bring historical justice”. The author notes that one of the reasons for the escalation of the conflict between Hungary and Ukraine has become the language issue. Still, however pity it is, all attempts of the Ukrainian side to resolve conflict matters have appeared to be vane, since Budapest is reluctant to listen to and consider any arguments of Kyiv, being fully distracted by its demand. It is hard to imagine that in civilized “old” Europe, Germany, for instance, would express claims or even threaten France for the fact that pupils in schools of the French region of Alsace (until 1918, its territory formed part of Germany that attempted to annex it at times of the Second World War) are taught in the official language – French, not in the language of the neighbouring country, even though the Alsatian and German languages are equally spoken there. Unfortunately, Hungary seems not to be ready to follow the example of the Franco-German reconciliation in terms of relations with all neighbours, despite the philosophy of its membership in the EU and NATO. The revenge-seeking attitudes of the Hungarian political establishment regarding the revision of borders according to the Versailles and Yalta systems of international relations are constantly boosted in all directions in the neighbouring countries, where ethnic Hungarians live (Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine). The so-called “formula of protecting interests of Russian citizens in Crimea and Donbas” adopted from Putin has apparently laid the foundation for the foreign policy strategy of V. Orban. First, as regards the appeal to make the region of ethnic Hungarians’ residence autonomous and subsequently – the appeal to hold a referendum on separation. The author summarizes that along with the political and diplomatic efforts, a substantial role in easing the tension in relations with Budapest should be played by non-governmental organizations and the expert community though holding forums and scientific conferences aiming at discussing the above-mentioned issues. Keywords: Hungary, conflict, Law on Language, geopolitics, strategies, foreign policy, Ukraine.


2019 ◽  
Vol IV (II) ◽  
pp. 238-244
Author(s):  
Asif Farooq ◽  
Umbreen Javaid

China’s tremendous rise will certainly be one of the major turbulent of the current century. Chinese leadership has already astonished the world with its economic development and active diplomacy. It is apparent that there will be a greater increase in Chinese power, influence, and involvement in regional and global affairs in future decades. We cannot envisage the exact nature of Chinese objectives and intentions in near future, however, we can proclaim that Chinese aims will be more spacious than they now are. Some observers view this increasing Chinese enthusiasm in regional affairs as a step towards regional hegemony, while others regard it as promotion of mutual understandings and economic interdependence. Some regional states are viewing Chinese policies with cautions and concerns have been raised in international community. To discuss and elaborate all these aspects of Chinese foreign policy behavior; the major paradigms like realism, liberalism, and constructivism will be explored respectively.


Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110612
Author(s):  
Matteo Capasso

This article brings together two cases to contribute to the growing body of literature rethinking the study of international relations (IR) and the Global South: The Libyan Arab al-Jamāhīrīyah and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Drawing on media representations and secondary literature from IR and international political economy (IPE), it critically examines three main conceptual theses (authoritarian, rentier, and rogue) used to describe the historical socio-political formations of these states up to this date. Mixing oil abundance with authoritarian revolutionary fervour and foreign policy adventurism, Libya and Venezuela have been progressively reduced to the figure of one man, while presenting their current crises as localized processes delinked from the imperialist inter-state system. The article argues that these analyses, if left unquestioned, perpetuate a US-led imperial ordering of the world, while foreclosing and discrediting alternatives to capitalist development emerging from and grounded in a Global South context. In doing so, the article contributes to the growing and controversial debate on the meanings and needs for decolonizing the study of IR.


Author(s):  
Simon Duke ◽  
Sophie Vanhoonacker

This chapter focuses on the European Union as a subsystem of international relations. It examines the following questions, taking into account the historical context in which EU foreign policy has developed as well as the theoretical pluralism that has characterized its study. First, how has the EU dealt with its own international relations internally? Second, what are the ideas and principles underlying EU foreign policy? Third, what is the EU's collective action capacity in relation to the rest of the world? The chapter illustrates interstate dynamics as a result of European integration by focusing on the cases of France, Germany, and Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). It also considers the EU's international identity and its role as a collective actor.


2019 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 504-523
Author(s):  
Charles Kraus

AbstractIn spring 1962, 60,000 individuals fled from northern Xinjiang into the Soviet Union. Known as the “Yi–Ta” incident, the mass exodus sparked a major flare up in Sino-Soviet relations. This article draws on declassified Chinese and Russian-language archival sources and provides one of the first in-depth interpretations of the event and its aftermath. It argues that although the Chinese government blamed the Soviet Union for the Yi-Ta incident, leaders in Beijing and Xinjiang also recognized the domestic roots of the disturbance, such as serious material deficits in northern Xinjiang and tensions between minority peoples and the party-state. The Chinese government's diplomatic sparring with Moscow over the mass exodus reflected Mao Zedong's continued influence on Chinese foreign policy, despite claims by scholars that Mao had retreated from policymaking during this period.


Author(s):  
Lior Herman

Oil and natural gas have frequently been used as instruments of foreign policy. While scholars have given substantial attention to the economics of exports and imports, much less has been paid to theorizing how energy can be its own type of carrot or stick, influencing international relations around the world. Future scholarship should focus on developing foreign policy theories specific to energy, including renewable energy sources and drawing on constructivist theories. In addition, the role of transit states, energy firms, sovereign wealth funds, and civil society should be more carefully theorized. Future theoretical and empirical research should also focus on the use of electricity and renewable energies as foreign policy instruments and their effects on global politics.


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