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"How May The World Be At Peace?": Idealism As Realism In Chinese Strategic Culture, Rosita Dellios

Rosita Dellios

There is a famous orientalism which declares: "Let the Chinese dragon sleep for when she awakes she will astonish the world." In this decade of China's self-strengthening, Western Realists seem to be seeing dragons again. Not so their geoeconomic counterparts. They see only markets. Neither the threat nor opportunity analysts, however, quite see China in the "round"; a mandala of security in which certain principles have long held sway over matters of survival and, indeed, benefit. An appreciation of China's cultural-philosophical tradition provides a corrective to these blinkered visions. More than that, it suggests a way forward in a world …