Chih-yu Shih et al. - China and International Theory: The Balance of Relationships

Major IR theories, which stress that actors will inevitably only seek to enhance their own interests, tend to contrive binaries of self and other and inside and outside. By contrast, this book recognizes the general need of all to relate, which they do through various imagined resemblances between them.

The authors of this book therefore propose the balance of relationships (BoR) as a new international relations theory to transcend binary ways of thinking. BoR theory differs from mainstream IR theories owing to two key differences in its epistemological position. Firstly, the theory explains why and how states as socially-interrelated actors inescapably pursue a strategy of self-restraint in order to join a network of stable and long-term relationships. Secondly, owing to its focus on explaining bilateral relations, BoR theory bypasses rule-based governance. By positing relationality as a key concept of Chinese international relations, this book shows that BoR can also serve as an important concept in the theorization of international relations, more broadly.

The rising interest in developing a Chinese school of IR means the BoR theory will draw attention from students of IR theory, comparative foreign policy, Chinese foreign policy, East Asia, cultural studies, post-Western IR, post-colonial studies and civilizational politics.

Chih-yu Shih, the primary author of this book, teaches international relations theory, anthropology of Knowledge, and cultural studies as National Chair Professor and University Chair Professor at National Taiwan University. Access to his current researchIntellectual History of China and Chinese Studiescan be found at http://www.china-studies.taipei/ Together, his writings on IR theory, intellectual history, and ethnic citizenship challenge familiar social science and humanity categories. His co-authorsChiung-chiu Huang (National Cheng-chi University), Pichamon Yeophantong (University of New South Wales, Canberra), Raoul Bunskoek (National Taiwan University), Josuke Ikeda (Toyama University), Yih Jye Hwang (Leiden University), Hung-jen Wang (National Cheng-Kung University), Chih-yun Chang (Shanghai Jiaotong University), and Ching-chang Chen (Ryukoku University)have all published critically on Asia in IR in general and on China, Japan, Taiwan and ASEAN in specific. They have come across each other through different joint projects involving critical IR, post-Western IR, homegrown IR, global IR, Asian IR and Chinese IR. Their careers include professional posts in India, Germany, Thailand, Japan, the US, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Australia, and China.

Chiung-chiu Huang is Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.

Pichamon Yeophantong is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Australia.

Raoul Bunskoek is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University, Taiwan.

Josuke Ikeda is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Human Development, University of Toyama, Japan.

Yih-Jye Hwang is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University College, The Netherlands.

Hung-jen Wang is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

Chih-yun Chang is a Research Fellow at the Department of History, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China.

Ching-chang Chen is Associate Professor at the Department of Global Studies, Ryokoku University, Japan.

First published 2019

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During the development of the balance of relationships (BoR) as both a theory of the international system and of strategic agency, we faced the challenge of engaging in and contributing to two major dialogues at the same timeinternational relations theory in general and the relational turn, in particular. Further complicating this challenge is the fact that the second dialogue involves a readership across the Anglosphere and the Sinosphere, with both spheres similarly focusing on why and how relations are necessary in international relations, but from different cultural backgrounds. In light of this, our intention is for our theory to transcend the familiar binaries of China and the West; great and small powers; rationality and relationality; as well as those reflecting political rivalries. Nevertheless, our primary purpose is to illustrate how Chinese intellectual resources can enhance the understanding of international relations and foreign policy practices everywhere. Through doing so, we hope to tackle the misreading and misconstruction of Chinese international relations. Our writing thus seeks to construct bridges across seemingly incongruent epistemological traditions.

This book offers a composite agenda that compares and reconciles relational imaginations of different kinds through the notion of the balance of relationships. We have opted to focus mainly on unpacking the concepts, ideas and epistemology that undergird BoR theory, and as a result, had to take out extensive empirical case chapters. Nevertheless, we do rely on real-world examples to determine BoRs scope for potential application, with the aim of making sense of empirical phenomena that familiar IR theories struggle to explain.