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Interdependence Between States Does Not Mean Co-operation As Liberals ...

Interdependence between states does not mean co-operation as liberals purport. It can be used to further national interest and this type of influence is the intangible soft power element of state apparatus. (Nye 1990 p. 30). We can see soft power in action through the Washington consensus where the US is the leader in these institutions. We can also see soft power through the spread of the US's liberal ideology in terms of economics and politics in what Fukuyama has called the Triumph of Liberal Democracy. (Fukuyama, 1992). This soft power has served to reinforce the US's hard power resources by gaining it consent and legitimacy as the dominant power. (Nye 1990 p. 33). The universalism of American culture has also helped to further the power of the US by enabling it to establish values and beliefs that are consistent with its own society. Therefore the thesis of this dissertation is that China will be the next superpower by maximizing its hard power resources to secure itself in the anarchic system of states. Also, due to interdependence among states and the growth of NGOs and MNCs it will seek soft power in its pursuit of power capabilities. The consequences of this systemic shift will mean the promotion of Eastern collective values over Western liberal individualistic tendencies.

Part One: Hard Power Resources
The Economy:
If, as Kennedy suggests, China's rise will be at the expense of the US, then at present most US concerns are directed at rapidly growing Chinese economy. There are certainly some impressive claims being made about the rise of Chinese economic power. Jeremy Warner writes that like it or not, from China's impact on finite world resources to climate change and the laws of supply and demand, it is transforming the way we live with a speed barely imaginable just a few years ago (The Independent January 27, 2006).
Over the last 27 years, China has gown at an average rate of 9.6 per cent per annum, reaching a GDP of £2.2 trillion in 2005 (The Independent January 27, 2006). In 1979, China represented 1 per cent of the world economy, with foreign trade totalling $20.6 billion. Today China accounts for 4 per cent of the world economy, with $851 billion in foreign trade, the third largest in the world (Bijian 2005, p19). There is of course still a lot of progress to be made China's economy for example is still only one seventh the size of that of the US (Bijian 2005, p19) but it is the rate of growth, along with plans for future expansion, the country's high savings ratio, and plans to expand supplies of nuclear , clean coal, hydro-electric and renewable forms of energy that lead US experts to believe that one day China will challenge the US as the worlds dominant superpower.


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