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Introduction

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Abstract

International Relations theory has become a popular subject in most academic institutions offering IR courses. As such it would be interesting to see what is the current state of the field of study in China. Some observations made by scholars in the field may help to shed some light.

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Notes

  1. Michael Banks, ‘Ways of analysing the world society’, in A.J.R. Groom and C.R. Mitchell (eds), International Relations Theory: a Bibliography (London: Francis Pinter Ltd; New York: Nichols Publishing Co., 1978), p. 209.

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  2. Since 1995 dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, Washington, DC.

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  3. Harry Harding, ‘Political science’, in Leo A. Orleans (ed.), Science in Contemporary China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980), p. 529.

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  4. Michael Yahuda, ‘International relations scholarship in the People’s Republic of China’, Millennium, Vol. 16, No. 12 (Summer 1987), p. 322. See also his ‘New directions: Chinese scholarship on international relations’, in Michael Yahuda (ed.), New Directions in the Social Sciences and Humanities in China (London: Macmillan, 1987), p. 127.

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  5. K.J. Holsti, The Dividing Discipline: Hegemony and Diversity in International Theory (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1985).

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  6. For an up-to-date and useful account of European perspectives, see A.J.R. Groom and Peter Mandaville, ‘Hegemony and autonomy in international relations: the continental experiences’, mimeograph, 1997.

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  7. Bai Xi, Dangdai guoji guanxi daolun [Introduction to Contemporary International Relations] (Beijing: Zhongguo Zhengfa Daxue chubanshe, 1991), p. 2.

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  8. The latest Chinese census figure as of February 1995 is 1.2 billion.

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  9. For an interesting account of the former glory of Chinese power and influence overseas, see Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: the Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).

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  10. Jindy Jan Pettman quoting John W. Burton in her plenary address entitled Worlding women’ at a conference on ‘New World Order/New International Relations/New Zealand’, held at Victoria University of Wellington on 8 December 1994.

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  11. Professor Feng Tejun of the Department of International Politics at the People’s University of China, Beijing, did not think that the works by Soviet, Polish, and Yugoslav scholars were deep enough (interview, 16 February 1995). Works by Western scholars on Soviet perspectives include: Margot Light, The Soviet Theory of International Relations (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1988); Allen Lynch, The Soviet Study of International Relations (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); and William Zimmerman, Soviet Perspectives on International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969).

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  12. A special issue on ‘The study of international relations’ appeared in Millennium, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer 1987). It contains several articles on IR studies in various countries, including Brazil, France, the Soviet Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, Hispanic America, Nigeria, and China. The Japan Association of International Relations has published a useful reference by Sadao Asaka (ed.), International Studies in Japan: a Bibliographic Guide (Tokyo: Japan Association of International Relations, 1988).

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  13. In Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh (eds), Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), pp. 481–505. Wang’s piece was based on a conference paper presented in Colorado in 1990, with minor updates to 1992. See also Zha Daojiong (ed.), ‘Political studies in East Asia,’ a special issue of Political Science, Vol. 49, No. l(July 1997).

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  14. Jongsuk Chay, Culture and International Relations (New York: Westport, CT; London: Praeger, 1990).

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  15. See note 14 above.

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  16. R.F. Wye’s review of Robinson and Shambaugh (eds), Chinese Foreign Policy, in Survival, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Winter 1995–96), pp. 180–1.

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  17. The China Quarterly, No. 141 (March 1995), p. 241.

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  18. Samuel S. Kim (ed.), China and the World: Chinese Foreign Relations in the Post-Cold War Era, 3rd edn (Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1994), p. 6.

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  19. Wang Jisi in Robinson and Shambaugh (eds), Chinese Foreign Policy, p. 483.

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© 1999 Gerald Chan

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Chan, G. (1999). Introduction. In: Chinese Perspectives on International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390201_1

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