The Interest-Responsibility Nexus in China's Foreign Policy and the Implications for Regional Order

Abstract

More than a decade after Gerald Segal argued in a 1999 Foreign Affairs article that ‘at best, China is a second-rank middle power’ in the military, economic and political realms, one may now persuasively refute Segal’s observation. China is currently the world’s second largest economy, is modernising its military, and is cultivating its political and cultural influence vis-à-vis an increasingly adept foreign policy. Yet as China’s growing power is unambiguously leaving a material and ideational footprint in many aspects of international affairs, debates about the purpose and projection of Chinese power continue unabated. Key questions that have emerged in the field of International Relations include whether China will be a status quo or revisionist power, and whether it will be a rule taker, breaker or maker in the constitution of regional and international order. Show more