What does China want?

Andreas Bøje Forsby defends his PhD dissertation entitled "The Logic of Social Identity in IR: Chinese identity and grand strategy in the 21st century" on Friday 20 May from 2pm at the Department of Political Science (University of Copenhagen).

A summary of the PhD dissertation:

Amidst recent concerns about the implications of China’s rise, this dissertation asks what the main driver of China’s grand strategy is. While International Relations (IR) scholars, so far, have primarily turned to explanations based on power and security dynamics or economic and institutional incentives, this dissertation instead zooms in on China’s identity as the primary motivational driver of Chinese grand strategy. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and extending its key insights to IR, the dissertation develops a so-called bounded constructivist framework for studying the logic of social identity, centered on the dual basic need of all social groups, including states, for social distinctiveness and a positive self-esteem.

Against this theoretical backdrop, the dissertation systematically traces and maps five main narratives of Chinese state identity through an empirical analysis of official Chinese government discourse in the 21st century: `Globalist China´, `Sovereign China´, `Unified China´, `Sino-centric China´ and `Rising China´. Each of these narratives seeks to satisfy China’s social identity needs in a distinct way, and with different implications for China’s understanding of itself and its strategic positioning in the world. Indeed, as the dominant narrative during the 2000s, `Globalist China´, has been eclipsed in the 2010s by `Rising China´, Chinese grand strategy has taken a corresponding shift from engaged status quo to a markedly more revisionist course. By undertaking a comprehensive study of how China’s identity constitutes a critical motivational driver of its grand strategy, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing debate about how the rise of China affects international order in the 21st century.