World Economics and Politics

No.11，2006

Abstracts

1 Zhu Liqun The Acceleration of the Normalization Process

7 Li Anshan China-African Relations in the Discourse on China’s Rise

In international academia, there are two interpretations-one optimistic and one pessimistic——about the rise of China. Against the background of the discourse on China’s rise, the author analyzes the past, present, and characteristics of Chinese-African relations from the perspective of continuity and change. The author argues that diplomatic leadership established the foundation for Chinese-African relations, with equality as the soul, mutual benefits as the core essence, and the standardization mechanism as the guarantee for sustainable development. Finally, the author criticizes three popular views about Chinese-African relations and points out the new challenges facing Chinese-African cooperation.

15 Zhang Qingmin Micro-models of Foreign Policy Decision-making Analysis and their Application

Only through the process of decision-making can international and domestic factors exert an influence on foreign policy. Micro-models that can be used to analyze the foreign policy decision-making process include cognition and personality studies of the decision makers, groupthink studies, and studies of organizational processes and bureaucratic politics. However, these models are weak in terms of the adequacy of information, the universality of application, and the comprehensiveness of their explanations. Thus, in studies of the foreign policy decision-making process, the above models should be selected based on the nature of the foreign policy decision making, the personalities of the supreme decision-makers, and the foreign policy decision-making units of the country involved.

24 Lang Ping How Trade Promotes Peace: A Case Study of Sino-U.S. Relations

How does trade affect bilateral relations? Liberals argue that trade can help foster bilateral political cooperation, and as the “binder” or “ballistic” of bilateral political relations, it is a force for peace. However, given the history of international relations, obviously trade cannot bring peace unconditionally. From the perspective of the decision-making process, the author introduces a new variable——“judgment on trade gains”——and argues that only when gains from war amount to zero and the decision makers have a positive judgment about the benefits they will gain from trade exchanges will trade promote peace as the trade level increases. Using this theoretical framework, the author presents a case study of Sino-U.S. relations and concludes that not until the U.S. government abandoned the links between MFN and the human rights issue in the 1990s and began to have a positive judgment about its benefits from trade with China was it possible for trade to serve as a binder between the two countries.

32 Gao Shangtao Positivism in International Studies

There has been a debate on positivism studies among Chinese IR scholars. Starting from a definition of positivism and the question it raises, the author analyzes the applicability of positivism to IR and social studies. The author argues that it is possible and necessary to adopt a positivist approach in IR studies. However, its application is limited to specific fields, such as the observation and description stage of research activities, thus clarifying the misunderstandings about positivism in IR studies.

40 Wang Tiejun Legalization of World Politics: A New Exploration into International Institutionalism

The legalization of world politics proposed by Keohane and others is a product of international institutionalism combined with international law. As a highly developed state of international institutions, the legalization of world politics opens a new field for international political studies. With in-depth discussions of obligations, accuracy, and delegation, this theory greatly enriches understandings about “rules” in international institutionalism, incorporating the constructive process of international law into the theoretical framework of institutionalism, and enhancing the development of international institutionalism in the core concepts, research agenda, and logic. However, due to the strong character of inter-governmentalism by academic lineages, the legalization of world politics has raised criticisms about the legitimacy of law and the constructive process of legalization.

47 Wang Ling Participation in International Organization: A Comparative Study

An important characteristic of international society today is that there exist thousands of international organizations in varied areas that have exerted a great and all-round influence on mankind. No regional or global issue can be resolved successfully without the involvement of international organizations. The ability of a country to participate in international organizations has become an important component of national comprehensive power. By conducting a comparative study on the rate of participation in different types of international organizations, the author analyzes the different abilities of countries to participate in major international organizations and concludes that there is a pyramid power structure in some international organizations.

55 Yu XiaofengWang Jiangli Non-traditional Security Keeping: Boundary, Setting, and Paradigm

Non-traditional security provides a new perspective for research on security theory. How non-traditional security is defined and its boundary, setting, and paradigm are clarified are key to coming to a better understanding of non-traditional security. Based on the definition of security, the authors compare the similarities and differences between traditional and non-traditional security, and review different ways of non-traditional security keeping, such as global security, common security, cooperative security, and hegemony security. Finally, the authors propose that a paradigm of “peace cooperationism” be constructed to achieve the goal of a harmonious world.

62 Guo Liancheng Economic Globalization and Transitional Economies: A Reciprocal Theory

Recently, the two pairs of relationships —— of economic globalization and economic transition, and of economic globalization and transitional economies —— have aroused increased concern. In-depth investigations have been undertaken from various perspectives, with the most distinguished being the linkage or reciprocal theory. From the perspective of the main features of economic globalization, namely trade liberalization, financial globalization, investment liberalization, and production globalization, and taking transitional economies (not economic transition) as the research objectives, the author analyzes the linkages and reciprocity between economic globalization and transitional economies both theoretically and practically. Based on the practices of transitional countries, the author attempts to distinguish the differences in the reciprocities between economic globalization and economic transition from those of economic globalization and transitional economies.

69 WEP Editorial Department Review of IR Theories and Hot International Issues (Part One)

In recent years, IR theory studies in China have made much progress and entered a prosperous stage of development. Chinese scholars not only have provided introductions to and evaluations of new IR theories, keeping them at the forefront of development, but have also attempted to establish a China School of IR theory. The author reviews IR theory studies and hot international issues since 2005. In terms of theory, the author mainly focuses on the latest developments in three schools, namely, Constructivism, the English School, and Feminism, complementing other reviews that look at papers published before June 2005 in these fields.

79 Qi Haixia Review of the Symposium “Chinese Ancient International Political Thinking: Issues and Experiences”