The Making of Security Policy in China: Theory and Practice

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: The debate about how the United States should approach the issue of an emerging China has intensified with the rapid economic growth and increasing power of the Chinese state. Realists would argue that China seeks to increase its own power at the expense of others and that an appropriate policy response is to constrain China. Liberals would argue that China has similar goals to the United States and can be engaged as a partner in issues of international security and trade. Both sides, however, perceive China as a unitary actor with consistent interests and not as a collection of organizational interests, thereby failing to reduce “Chinese interests” to their most elemental parts. A third, more nuanced option that is not given adequate attention in the literature is that bureaucratic politics in China are a critical factor in the determination of Chinese security policy. This thesis will use the case of China’s policy towards North Korea to determine whether the unitary actor’s approach of realism or a bureaucratic politics approach better explains Chinese security policy outcomes. The findings of this thesis have great theoretical implications, as well as implications for conceptions of China, the denuclearization of North Korea, and U.S. China policy.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 16, 2006

Author	Mastro, Oriana Skylar
Advisor	Lewis, John W.

Subject	China
Subject	United States
Subject	security
Subject	foreign policy
Subject	trade
Subject	Center for International Security and Cooperation
Subject	CISAC
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/wh743nn4241

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Mastro, Oriana Skylar. (2006). The Making of Security Policy in China: Theory and Practice. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/wh743nn4241

Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses

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