The Rise of China and International Order: A Review of Three Articles

Abstract

The change in the nature or characteristics of one actor or a group of actors in the international system necessarily produces concerns among other actors. Depending on the theory one opts to use, such development may appear to be an attempt to amass power and alter the nature of the system or create conditions for cooperation. Concerns are often centred on how such changes may specifically imply to international order, trade, stability, power configuration and state’s behaviour towards other actors. Although issues like climate change, poverty, security challenges, diseases and finance have been topical and generated debates in international relations among scholars and practitioners, recently, the emergence and rise of China has been an important topic of discussion.

In this paper, a review of three articles: Jeffrey Legro’s; “What China Will Want: The Future Intentions of a Rising Power” published in The Perspectives on Politics Vol. 5, No. 3 (September 2007); William Callahan’s “Chinese Visions of World Order: Post-Hegemonic or a New Hegemony?”, International Studies Review, Vol. 10. No. 4 (2008) and; Mearsheimer(2005) “Better to Be Godzilla than Bambi” is presented. The key argument posited is that the rise of China is likely to be characterized by the use of a combination of strategies- separation, integration and revisionism (these strategies are identified and discussed by Legro, 2007). There is no single straight forward answer to what China might want in the future.

George Jeriko, PhD Candidate, University of Dar es Salaam E-mail: gjombe@yahoo.com