Development of International Relations Theory in China

Abstract

The article seeks to trace the development of International Relations Theory (IRT) in China since 1978. Based on the data collected from five major International Relations (IR) journals published in China as well as a series of translated Western classics and important IRT works by Chinese scholars, the article concludes that two parallel processes are at work in China over the last thirty years. One is a tenacious learning process aimed at knowledge acquirement and generation. It is primarily a process of learning from the West, especially the US, through which IR has developed as an independent academic discipline in China. The resulting triangular competition for influence among the three imported schools of IRT, that is, Realism, Liberalism and Constructivism coincides with the internal debates on China’s rise and integration into the international community. The other is a process of developing a Chinese school of IRT. Dissatisfied with the dominance of Western theoretical discourse in the Chinese context, scholars in China have been trying to bring Chinese thoughts back in and establish a distinctly Chinese perspective on IRT.