China's Challenge to Liberal Norms: The Durability of International Order

Is China challenging liberal norms or being socialised to them? This book argues that China is incrementally pushing for re-interpretation of liberal norms, but, the result is that rather than being illiberal, this reinterpretation produces norms that are differently liberal and more akin to the liberal pluralism of the 1990s. In developing this argument, the author presents a novel way to understand and assess these incremental changes, and the causes of them. The book’s empirical chapters explore China’s views on norms of sovereignty and intervention, and aid and development, contrasting them against the current western liberal practices, but making the case that they are congruent with the attitudes understood as being broadly liberal-pluralist. This book will appeal to students seeking to understand how rising states may affect the current institutions of international order, and make assessments of how fast that order may change. It will also appeal to scholars working on Chinaand institutions by aiding the development of new lines of enquiry. 

Table of Contents:
Chapter One – Introduction.- Part I: Conceptual Tools.- Chapter Two – China as a Normative Power? Chapter Three – Concepts of International Order.- Chapter Four – Norms, Order and Social Change: Laying Out a Toolkit for Normative Change.- Part II: Re-Interpreting Sovereignty by Contesting Norms: China and the United Nations.- Chapter Five – Concepts of Sovereignty and their Evolution and Status.- Chapter Six – China’s Engagement with the UN Security Council in Debates on Sovereignty Chapter Seven – China and the Responsibility to Protect.- Chapter Eight – Conclusion: China and the Norms of Sovereignty.- Part III: Evolution or Revolution of Development Practices: China and International Development.- Chapter Nine – Liberal Development: The Practice and Assumptions of Aid.- Chapter Ten – Wider implications of China’s Rise as a Development Partner.- Chapter Eleven – Conclusion: China and the Norms of Development.- Chapter Twelve – Conclusion: China’s Challenges to Liberal Norms. 

About the Author :
Catherine Jones is Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. Her work focuses on the engagement of East Asian states with institutions contributing to global governance. Her research has been published in The Pacific Review, International Politics, and Pacific Focus, as well as in various book chapters. This project was initially funded through by the Leverhulme Trust, through a major research project – the Liberal Way of War – at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading.