Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (review)

Reviews 251 Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh, editors. Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. 644 pp. Hardcover $59.00, isbn 0-19-828389-x. Paperback $29.95, isbn 0-19-829016-0. The collapse ofthe Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War have profoundly affected the international system and the major powers in that system—especially the People's Republic of China. China is no longer the junior partner in international communism or the card to be played in the superpower rivalry; rather, in the post-Cold War era, China has become a major regional power in an increasingly interdependent world. To date, however, students of Chinese foreign relations have not systematically addressed how the changed international climate might affect China's position in the world system or its bilateral relations. Similarly, the lessons to be learned from reviewing the history ofthe foreign relations ofthe People's Republic with the benefit ofa post-Cold War perspective have yet to be fully elucidated. And, the analysis ofChina's past behavior as well as hypotheses about China's future behavior within the context ofinternational relations theory—instead of within the context ofthe Sinocentric model—is a wide-open field. In Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh have compiled a volume ofessays, the product ofa conference attended by China watchers and international relations theorists, that establishes the framework for future analysis of China's foreign relations. Sections ofthe compendium cover domestic and international sources of Chinese foreign policy, how China has interacted over time with other nations, and the interrelationship between Chinese foreign policy and international relations theory. The thesis of the volume, as stated by Carol Lee Hamrin, in "Elite Politics and the Development of China's Foreign Relations," is that "In order to better understand China and its place in the world, China specialists need to find ways to integrate studies of domestic and international Chinese behaviour, ofhistorical and contemporary studies, and of studies from different disciplines" (p. 71). Rather than treat China as a special case, as it has been treated in the past, the authors ofthis volume argue that Chinese foreign policy should be analyzed using the same parameters that international relations scholars and foreign policy analysts bring to bear on any nation-state in the world system. The methodological and theoretical approaches are as varied as the topics© 1996 by University covered. David Shambaugh reviews Sino-American relations using the levels-ofofHawai 'i Pressanalysis approach, while detailed area studies—ofChina's relations with the Soviet Union (Steven M. Goldstein), Europe (Michael B. Yahuda), the Middle East (Lilian Craig Harris), Africa (Philip Snow), and Asia (Harold C. Hinten)—pro- 252 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1996 vide historical background for the theory builders. Carol Lee Hamrin uses James Rosenau's theory ofa single country' in her analysis ofChina's elites and foreign policy formulation, while Rosenau himself discusses how scenarios ofthe Chinese future and ofglobal politics in the future might lay the foundations of a theoretical synthesis. Traditional international relations attention to strategic studies (William T. Tow) is broadened to include issue areas of increasing importance to the postCold War world, namely the role of development (Barry Naughton), economics (Madelyn C. Ross), and science and technology (Wendy Frieman), in China's foreign relations. Allen S. Whiting suggests how academicians might work together with members ofthe intelligence community to understand how Chinese foreign policy is formulated and thereby to accurately forecast it. Paul H. Kreisberg analyzes China's negotiating behavior, Samuel S. Kim continues his study of China's behavior in international organizations, and Harry Harding shows that cooperation rather than conflict "could just as easily provide an organizing framework for the study of China's international conduct" (p. 375). Uniting these disparate modes of analysis into a whole is left to Thomas W. Robinson, whose comprehensive review of the foreign relations ofthe People's Republic, "Chinese Foreign Policy from the 1940s to the 1990s," concludes die volume . Robinson looks at the relative role of domestic factors—the primacy ofpolitics , the weight of the past, and the importance ofideology—and ofinternational factors—the foreign...