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.
