China and International Relations: The Chinese View and the Contribution of Wang Gungwu (China Policy Series)

`China and International Relations' is a collection of articles that explore different aspects of China's international presence, both current and historic, its view of international relations, and how its view differs from established models, particularly the neo-realist model. Ostensibly the papers are written in honor of Wang Gungwu, whom I'm not familiar with, and his scholarly work in Chinese history and IR, although the work of John King Fairbank is mentioned copiously. Several papers contrast the Western notion of `Balance of Power' with China's notion of `Hierarchy' and consider how these different perspectives may play out as China and the West vie for power in the post-Cold War area.Personally, I found this book to be a mixed bag. About one-third of the articles had strong, analytic discussions of history and/or IR, both Chinese and Western, and gave insight into what might be a genuinely distinct Chinese model. However, about the same fraction of articles I found to be shrill, dogmatic, chauvinistic; these articles tended to roll out long standing grievances and did not seem interested in generating new ideas. The remaining articles, which honored Wang Gungwu's scholarly work or focused on historical aspects of overseas Chinese, Wang's particular field, were outside the scope of my own interests. Overall, perhaps the mix of perspectives provides a good snapshot of the status of IR and China. And any quality work in the field of comparative history is a joy to find.