Home Search Sitemap Contact Bookmark

Free Dissertations - International Relations Dissertations

Dissertation The Dragon Awakes Will China Be The Next Superpower? Contents ...

DISSERTATION
The Dragon Awakes Will China be the next superpower?
Contents

Introduction
The dragon awakes
Definition of power
Part one: Hard power resources
[economics, influence, reach, aid]
[military and ability to mobilise]
[regional hegemony]

Part two: Soft power resources
[institutions, setting the agenda, ability to influence]
[culture, values, beliefs, films]

Part three: A New World Order?
Liberalism or Authoritarianism
Conclusion

References
Introduction:
China is a sleeping dragon. When it awakes, the world will shake.
(Eccleston H, 2004, p290).
Napoleon Bonaparte made this prophetic comment regarding China in 1808 and it would seem that today China has indeed awoken. (Optimize, 2004 p. 1). China has had unprecedented economic growth at around 9.5% per annum, a statistic even more impressive amazing bearing in mind that only in 1978 China was poorer than Korea and Taiwan were in the 1960s. (Nye 1997-98 p. 67). China also shows signs of extending its economic reach and is expanding its ventures into developed states. Only recently the Chinese firm Nanjing bought the British ailing car firm MG Rover for £50 million. (BBC News 2006 p. 1).Also in 2005 the Chinese Lenovo Group acquired IBM's PC business making Lenovo the third largest PC Company in the world. (Economic Times, 2005 p. 1) There is also a huge inflow of FDI (foreign direct investment) into China. China has established 22,245 new firms attracting $59.2 billion in FDI making a total of $33.4 billion in 2003. This makes China the top destination for FDI and a country that firms want to do business with. (People's Daily, 2003). It is thought by some observers that China's economy at its present rate could eventually overtake that of the US (United States). (Nye 1997-98 p. 67). If this is so, could China surpass the US in other areas and displace the US as the world superpower. There will be huge implication for international relations if this is to be the case.
The writer's hypothesis is that China's rise to superpower status will mean a shift of economic, military and cultural power from the west to the east. Drawing on the work of John Mearsheimer that states are power maximizers, China will continue to pursue power in a bid to become the most powerful state in the international system, a position currently occupied by the US. (Mearsheimer 2001 p. 21). Even those who advocate that the spread of liberalism will lessen the need for the pursuit of power have not been able to ignore this development. Fukuyama in his book America at the Crossroads says that social engineering like that seen in Iraq leads to unexpected consequences and undermines its own ends. Therefore actions which are put forward as promoting peace and democracy turn into something they were not intended to be, the promotion of the national interest of the US. (New York Times, 2006 p. 2).


Thanks