Abstract
Wan examines the theories of power and international order, the relationship between global finance and sovereign states and a broader scientific field of biogeography. The AIIB is a power move by a rising great power vis-à-vis the status quo superpower. Wan provides an alternative but unified framework to analyze power. Logically and empirically, power can be both goal and means. He follows a biogeographical approach that emphasizes evolving processes rather than simply action and reaction in a mechanical fashion. Evolution exerts pressure on the content and intensity of power. He also argues that power is both intrinsic and observer-relative. Power is partially a social construction. We should focus on what seems to come ‘natural’ for the players in international relations.
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Wan, M. (2016). Power, Order and Biogeography. In: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: The Construction of Power and the Struggle for the East Asian International Order. The Political Economy of East Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137593870_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137593870_1
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