This project argues that ‘China’s rise’ is a contested notion, with varied perceptions of the implications of China’s ascendancy have shaped policy preferences in ways that are inconsistent with concerns over the threat of an impending power-transition. Combining concepts and methods derived from International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis it examines the linkages between great power politics and policymakers’ competing interpretations of key international actors, and their influence upon foreign policies. The main objective is to illuminate the different ways in which the US and the EU have responded to the rise of China through a close analysis of their decision-making processes and outcomes across a series of key encounters and events, including the transatlantic debate over the EU’s proposal to lift its China arms embargo (2003-2005). Drawing on extensive semi-structured interviews with policy elites, and US cables obtained via Wikileaks, the arms embargo case study offers considerable new insights into this dispute and provides a new perspective on the debate.Undertaking qualitative analysis of the development of American and European policymakers’ perceptions of China and how these have influenced policy choices at key junctures in their respective relationships, it will be of interest to graduates and scholars of post-Cold War international politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, policymaking, US-China relations and EU-China relations.
Associated publications and activities
Scott Brown, Power, Perception and Foreign Policymaking : US and EU Responses to the Rise of China, Routledge, 2018.
5 June 2017 Scott Brown and Miguel Otero Iglesias’s chapter “The EU and China: Partners in Global Economic Governance Reform?” published in Jing Men and Annika Linck (eds), China and EU: Reform and Governance, Routledge.
4-6 May 2017 Scott Brown presented ‘China’s Rise, Continued: US and EU Responses under Obama and the Lisbon Treaty’ to the EUSA Biennial Conference, Miami, FL.
26 Apr. 2017 Scott Brown’s testimony to the House of Commons enquiry on UK-China relations published.
22-25 February 2017 Scott Brown presented ‘China’s Rise, Continued: US and EU Responses under Obama and the Lisbon Treaty’ to the ISA Annual Convention, Baltimore, MD.