The Sino-Pakistani relationship: China’s testing ground as benevolent major power
(2017) The Pacific Century? ISA International Conference 2017 — Location: University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (15.June.2017)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
Vandamme, Dorothée 
- Abstract
- While a great deal of attention is devoted to the Pacific region as the new chessboard of international politics, Pakistan remains a key actor for the 21st century, both in terms of threat and potential. Drawing from sociology and social psychology, the paper seeks to analyze the relation between China and Pakistan to answer the following question: how is China’s bilateral relationship with Pakistan illustrative of its positioning as a benevolent power in the Asian region? To answer that question, we look at Chinese foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan as illustrative of two trends: empirically, Pakistan is central for regional stability, and a major component of Beijing’s stance to assert itself as a peaceful power, while countering the US’s influence in the region. Theoretically, current developments in IR literature tend to favor non-Western views. Among them is role theory, which by adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective, gives the opportunity to go beyond traditional Western approaches. Building from Thies’ socialization game, IR role theory (Harnisch et al. 2011), and empirical data from interviews with Pakistani officials, the paper will address the issue of China as playing a key role in the normalization policy of Pakistan, underscoring the argument that Beijing aims at guarantying a peaceful development of the Asian region under its leadership.
- Affiliations
Citations
Vandamme, D. (2017). The Sino-Pakistani relationship: China’s testing ground as benevolent major power. The Pacific Century? ISA International Conference 2017, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/229353