New Frontiers in China's Foreign Relations: Zhongguo Waijiao de Xin Bianjiang(Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development)

This book stands as a rebuke to any who would attempt to forward simplistic interpretations of China's rise. In place of parsimonious arguments, or an endorsement of any singular set of images (whether pacific or confrontational), it repeatedly calls attention to the remarkable complexity of China's emerging international profile. More specifically, the leading Chinese and American scholars working in the fields of Chinese foreign policy, international political economy, and national security, who contributed to this volume argue that while China appears to be entering a new era in its relationship with the outside world, such a development encompasses disparate, even contradictory, policies, and, as a result, there is a great deal of fluidity within China's place in world politics.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction. A Time of Some Significance: The People's Republic at Sixty and New Frontiers in Chinese Foreign Relations Part 2 Part I: Foreign Relations Chapter 3 Chapter 1. The Moral Dimension of Chinese Foreign Policy Chapter 4 Chapter 2. Unconventional Sources of Chinese Insecurity: What The Emergence of NTS Concerns within Chinese Foreign Policy and National Security Circles Reveals about China's "Rise" Chapter 5 Chapter 3. Shaping China's Foreign Policy: The Paradoxical Role of Foreign-Educated Returnees Part 6 Part II: Domestic-Foreign Policy Nexus Chapter 7 Chapter 4. The Economic Factor in Chinese Foreign Policy Chapter 8 Chapter 5. China's Domestic Policy Fragmentation and "Grand" Strategy in Global Politics Part 9 Part III: National Security Concerns Chapter 10 Chapter 6. Security Policy and China's Defense Modernization: A Sixty-Year Perspective Chapter 11 Chapter 7. Strategic Priority and Choice: China's Search of Security in an Era of Multiple Threats Chapter 12 Chapter 8. Pragmatic Compliance: China's Policy toward Multilateral Export Control Regimes Part 13 Part IV: Emerging and Future Issues Chapter 14 Chapter 9. Chinese Foreign Policy Challenges: Periphery as Core Chapter 15 Chapter 10. China's Foreign Policy in a Globalized World: Challenges and Opportunities

About the Author :
Allen Carlson is associate professor of government at Cornell University. Ren Xiao is director of the Center for Chinese Foreign Policy Studies at Fudan University, China.

Review :
Having successfully celebrated its 60th birthday, the People’s Republic of China now embarks upon a new era of global influence, attention, and challenges. This book provides an insightful guide to the complex array of domestic and international forces shaping China’s foreign policy today. Grounded in rich descriptions and theoretically informed analyses, the contributors reveal how domestic actors and institutions are transforming China’s foreign policymaking, yielding important implications for Asia and the world. This edited volume offers a comprehensive analysis of China's struggle as a rising power and at same time a developing country when it celebrated the sixtieth birthday of the People's Republic. It is a remarkable collection of research articles by a group of top scholars of Chinese foreign policy and makes a major contribution to help understand the complexity and fluidity of Chinese foreign relations and policy transition in the 21st century. “This volume brings together ten scholars in an effort to untangle the complexity of China’s foreign policy. Carlson and Ren establish the overarching theme of new perspectives on the study of Chinese foreign policy by including chapters that analyze China’s foreign relations from traditional as well as newer perspectives, and bringing together Chinese and Western scholarly perspectives.” “The greatest challenges of an edited volume is establishing a coherent theme that ties all chapters together and ensuring an even quality across the chapters. Carlson and Ren establish the overarching theme of new perspectives on the study of Chinese foreign policy by including chapters that analyze China’s foreign relations from traditional as well as newer perspectives, and bringing together Chinese and Western scholarly perspectives. However, the quality of the scholarship and analysis is uneven and each chapter does not make an equal contribution to the volume as a “rebuke to any who would attempt to forward simplistic interpretations of China’s rise” and an attempt to call “attention to the remarkable complexity of China’s emerging international profile.”