{"title":"China’s grand strategy and Myanmar’s peace process","authors":"Chiraag Roy","doi":"10.1093/irap/lcaa012","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Despite growing interest in China, scholars continue to grapple with its reemergence as a major power, offering gloomy predictions of a fraught geopolitical landscape. More recent analyses, however, stemming from constructivist thinking, explore the relevance of China’s history, geography, and culture in shaping its foreign policy. Encapsulated in the grand strategy concept, this perspective highlights China’s long-standing preoccupation with its periphery and emphasis on peace. Problematically, current scholarship offers little insight as to whether periphery countries also share this benign view of China. Aimed at addressing this gap, this article explores China’s role in Myanmar’s peace process, using ‘grand strategy’ to analyze over 50 interviews with diverse stakeholders in Myanmar. Based on the data, this article finds that China’s support for Myanmar is perceived to be economically driven, often at the expense of peace, implying that the historically inclined perspective of grand strategy requires rethinking.","PeriodicalId":51799,"journal":{"name":"International Relations of the Asia-Pacific","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2020-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/irap/lcaa012","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Relations of the Asia-Pacific","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcaa012","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
Despite growing interest in China, scholars continue to grapple with its reemergence as a major power, offering gloomy predictions of a fraught geopolitical landscape. More recent analyses, however, stemming from constructivist thinking, explore the relevance of China’s history, geography, and culture in shaping its foreign policy. Encapsulated in the grand strategy concept, this perspective highlights China’s long-standing preoccupation with its periphery and emphasis on peace. Problematically, current scholarship offers little insight as to whether periphery countries also share this benign view of China. Aimed at addressing this gap, this article explores China’s role in Myanmar’s peace process, using ‘grand strategy’ to analyze over 50 interviews with diverse stakeholders in Myanmar. Based on the data, this article finds that China’s support for Myanmar is perceived to be economically driven, often at the expense of peace, implying that the historically inclined perspective of grand strategy requires rethinking.
期刊介绍:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific is an exciting journal that addresses the major issues and developments taking place in the Asia-Pacific. It provides frontier knowledge of and fresh insights into the Asia-Pacific. The journal is a meeting place where various issues are debated from refreshingly diverging angles, backed up by rigorous scholarship. The journal is open to all methodological approaches and schools of thought, and to ideas that are expressed in plain and clear language.