A leading foreign policy thinker uses Chinese political theory to
explain why some powers rise as others decline and what this means for
the international order While work in international relations has
closely examined the decline of great powers, not much attention has
been paid to the question of their rise. The upward trajectory of
China is a particularly puzzling case. How has it grown increasingly
important in the world arena while lagging behind the United States
and its allies across certain sectors? Borrowing ideas of political
determinism from ancient Chinese philosophers, Leadership and the Rise
of Great Powers explains China’s expanding influence by presenting a
moral-realist theory that attributes the rise and fall of nations to
political leadership. Yan Xuetong shows that the stronger a rising
state’s political leadership, the more likely it is to displace a
prevailing state in the international system. Yan defines political
leadership through the lens of morality, specifically the ability of a
government to fulfill its domestic responsibility and maintain
international strategic credibility. Examining leadership at the
personal, national, and international levels, Yan shows how rising
states like China transform the international order by reshaping power
distribution and norms. Yan also considers the reasons for America’s
diminishing international stature even as its economy, education
system, military, political institutions, and technology hold steady.
The polarization of China and the United States will not result in
another Cold War scenario, but their mutual distrust will ultimately
drive the world center from Europe to East Asia. Using the lens of
classical Chinese political theory, Leadership and the Rise of Great
Powers offers a provocative, alternative perspective on the changing
dominance of nations on the global stage.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691191935
Publisert
2019
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter