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Full-Text Articles in Defense and Security Studies

Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters, Lukas K. Danner Oct 2016

Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters, Lukas K. Danner

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzed the internal incoherence of China’s grand strategy. To do so, it used the cultural driver of honor to explain the contradictory behavior of China, which ranges from peaceful, responsible international actor to assertive, revisionist rising power with hegemonic ambitions. The central research question asked why China often diverges from Peaceful Development, thus leading to major contradictions as well as possible misperceptions on the part of other nations. Honor was the standard of reference that was utilized and examined in order to establish congruence and coherence between deed and praxis. Accordingly, the first hypothesis of this study posited …


China's Contradictory Grand Strategy Manifestations: Examining The Rare Earths Export Restrictions And The One Belt, One Road Initiative, Lukas K. Danner Jun 2016

China's Contradictory Grand Strategy Manifestations: Examining The Rare Earths Export Restrictions And The One Belt, One Road Initiative, Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner

In the past few years, China has exhibited a rising assertiveness in international relations, including trade, although its official grand strategy remains "Peaceful Development." Examples of this contradictory trajectory are China's rare earth elements export restrictions (assertive) and the One Belt, One Road initiative (peaceful). This article seeks to establish, on the one hand, whether or not these examples are conforming to or diverging from "Peaceful Development," and therefore actually a manifestation of the alleged rising assertiveness on China's part, and on the other hand, identify the reason why China is acting ambivalently. To accomplish this, this article gives historical-cultural …