"Conditioning China’s Influence: Intentionality, Intermediaries, And Institutions" - By CWP Alum Courtney J. Fung, Enze Han & Austin Strange
According to popular accounts, China’s international influence is increasing with its growing material capabilities. However, researchers repeatedly demonstrate gaps between China’s power and its influence. Building on earlier research, we propose an inclusive approach to conceptualizing China’s influence abroad. Our approach conditions China’s net influence on three dimensions. First, intentionality distinguishes between intentional influence-seeking and influence that accrues unintentionally via influence externalities. Second, a systematic treatment of Chinese intermediaries–the diverse set of substate actors operating overseas–is needed in order to expand the study of Chinese influence beyond state-level behavior. Finally, domestic institutions in host countries are essential conduits for conditioning how the behavior of Chinese actors, as well as group and individual reactions within host countries, are aggregated up to the policy level.
Courtney J. Fung, Enze Han, Kai Quek & Austin Strange (2022): Conditioning China’s Influence: Intentionality, Intermediaries, and Institutions, Journal of Contemporary China, DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2022.2052436 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2022.2052436
Courtney J. Fung is Associate Professor in the Department of Security Studies & Criminology at Macquarie University. She is concurrently Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University and also Associate Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, and is on the editorial board of Contemporary Security Policy and Australian Journal of International Affairs. Her research examines how rising powers address the norms and provisions for global governance and international security, with an empirical focus on China.
Dr. Enze HAN is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration. His research interests include ethnic politics in China, China's relations with Southeast Asia, especially with Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, and the politics of state formation in the borderland area between China, Myanmar and Thailand. Dr. Han received a Ph.D in Political Science from the George Washington University in the United States in 2010. Afterwards he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University. During 2015-2016, he was a Friends Founders' Circle Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA. In 2017, he was a fellow at the East Asia Institute in Seoul, South Korea. His research has been supported by the Leverhulme Research Fellowship, and British Council/Newton Fund. Prior to Hong Kong, Dr. HAN was Senior Lecturer in the International Security of East Asia at SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom.
Assistant professor: Austin Strange is Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and Public Administration. He researches and teaches Chinese foreign policy, international political economy, and international development. Austin's current research focuses on China's past and present roles in the world economy, with an emphasis on China's relations with developing countries.
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