Emerging powers and the post-liberal world Flashcards
Who are the two major emerging powers we focus on?
Russia and China
What is the grouping of states challenging the current liberal world order?
BRICS
(could also add in Indonesia, Turkey and Saudi who have seen a dramatic increase in their economic and strategic weight)
What process have BRICS countries undergone in recent years/decades?
State transformation.
The political legal and institutional reconfiguration of state power and apparatuses.
However, the scope of state transformation is global, not just confined to rising powers.
What are the two positions on how the BRICS countries intend to handle the current liberal status quo as they grow in power?
They (especially China) will seek to undermine and ultimately replace the current Western-led order (revisionist-realist perspective)
OR
They have benefited from the status quo and are therefore keen to retain it and build up power within it
(status quoist-liberal perspective)
Is the term ‘rising powers’ ethno-centric?
Arguably yes.
The idea of the ‘rise’ of the other can only be understood as a threat to the self. ‘Rising powers’ is ultimately a self-referential term.
Who wrote against the idea of an imagined, misguided nostalgia for a ‘liberal order’?
Porter
What is Porter’s evidence that the ‘liberal order’ was not so ‘liberal’?
It relied on imposing order by stepping outside rules and accommodating illiberal forces. The US established order via rather ugly means, as the ordering superpower it did not bind itself to the rules of the system.
E.g. US support for anti-communist dictatorships around the globe during the Cold War, with CIA-backed coups such as in Chile (leading to Pinochet in 1973) and in Iran 1953, the Congo 1960.
What can be argued about the relationship between nostalgia for a ‘liberal order’ and for ‘American primacy’?
They are one and the same. Calls for a restoration of the liberal order are calls for the perpetuation of American primacy.
Does Porter argue that the ‘liberal order’ was as economically liberal as it advocated?
No. The liberal order advocated for economic liberalism, with institutions like the IMF to enforce this liberalism, yet the most avowed exponents of free trade continually resorted to protectionism.
Not the flat, meritocratic, free-market capitalist world nostalgists like to present…
What is the relationship between optimism/pessimism and views on China?
Optimism = China as an opportunity (especially economically)
Pessimism = China as a threat. National insecurity, especially in times of change, can lead to a fear of China
Does a bigger population always mean success?
No not always.
Bigger population = more infrastructure demands, more regionalism or domestic instability
Throwing people at problems isn’t always the best way of solving them.
Demographic size not always useful for superpowers!!!
Is China more economically subnational than the average country or less subnational than average?
Far above the average for both democracies and non-democracies. 85% of government expenditure is at the subnational level.
China is not just run by Xi and his inner circle but in fact lots of gov’t spending and control is in the hands of subnational institutions.
What did the belt and road initiative begin as?
Some believe it was simply China trying to offload excess steel.
It developed as different provinces were determined the originally domestic project would go through them - showing subnational power. It has now expanded across the globe.
What three process are going on in China as part of China’s state transformation?
-Fragmentation
-Decentralisation
-Internationalisation.
Does China ‘rising’ in an already carved up world leave the country in a difficult place?
Yes. Not much scope to expand across the globe.
Western powers still benefitting from colonialism, exploitation… and have established spheres of influence.
Why do Western powers look down on China’s projects/relations across the globe?
They don’t like the dictatorships or authoritarian regimes that China is dealing with (e.g. in the horn of Africa) and they claim these big infrastructure projects in Africa are going to leave poor African nations in debt to China
BUT nearly all African countries have bigger debts to the neo-liberal World Bank
FURTHERMORE, these HEP and transport projects, and hospitals, are delivering what people want (like the Chinese funded light rail system in Addis Ababa) - Western projects in Africa deliver what we think they should want (e.g. sending condoms, or sending goats, or maybe occasionally delivering goats).
China had its industrial revolution - what revolution is it having now?
An agricultural revolution.
Its inland agriculture (away from Eastern seaboard) is a peasant based agricultural system with agricultural practices severely lagging behind much of the Global North.
Is China struggling with the concept of having children?
Used to have criticised one child policy
Now has pro-natalist policies but birth rates still low and declining. Incentives not working. To do with non-economic problems associated with having children?
Which Chinese telecom company is the West fearful of?
Huawei - the largest telecom manufacturer in the world.
Big fear from the US - fear Chinese spyware
Similar to fear over Marconi’s technology around WW1 (fear of Italians)?
Must think critically - is this fair?
Who is investing in China because the West largely refuse to?
The powerful Chinese diaspora across SE Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia.
China may have opened up economically but is it open culturally?
No - many fear China is actually closing up again.
Previously, you could consume Western media (BBC, CNN…) in China, now with the ‘Great Firewall of China’ you need to use VPNs. China is worried about the the spread of the West’s soft power into its borders, they are especially worried about Chinese youth being consumed by technology and internet.
They can’t control what young people think, they can’t control what people consume, they can’t stop their people from being influence by Western culture, it sees its young people disconnected from its elites - a threat to the future of ‘their’ China.
When Russia invaded Ukraine did ‘experts’ think the war would last over 2 years?
No - Western media and militaries presumed that Russia would take Ukraine in a matter of days - US general quoted as saying Kyiv would fall in 72 hours.
Its been 2 years and Russia is stuck in E Ukraine with Ukraine seeing reasonably successful counter-offensives (even into Russian territory)
Is Putin popular in Russia?
It is hard to tell - but despite Western reporting it appears he is (especially in rural/poorer areas and with older people)
What state was Russia in before Putin became powerful in the gov’t?
Russia was a country in the ‘trauma zone’ after the self-implosion of the USSR. Only one country on Earth has ever (outside of war) had a falling life expectancy - post-cold war Russia. People had to eat tables, sawdust… gangs ran major cities.
Putin helped (to some extent) to stabilise a country in ruin.
