Contesting liberal internationalism: China’s renegotiation of world order

Abstract

As the introduction to the special issue on 'Contesting liberal internationalism: China's renegotiation of world order', this paper outlines the theoretical framework of the special issue, namely international order and order contestation, and the main arguments of the four papers included in this special issue. Recently, a, albeit not the, key challenge to the liberal international order stems from the leadership aspirations of non-Western, non-liberal states, and their increasing demand for a greater voice, most notably China under the leadership of Xi Jinping. This special issue is constructed as a debate concerning the alleged challenges posed by China to both the political and economic spheres of the liberal international order. The four case studies and papers are grouped into two core themes: the impact of China's state-capitalist development model and practices on the liberal economic order, and China's attempts to transform norms and rules in security-related matters. The four papers aim to appraise Chinese discursive narratives and practices that would collectively challenge American liberal hegemony. Altogether they argue that a hybrid of order-building norms and practices is likely to co-exist alongside the prevailing liberal international order.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The workshop was funded by the UPTAKE H2020 project. UPTAKE is an H2020 Twinning research consortium that connects researchers from the universities of Uppsala, Tartu and Kent. The workshop brought together scholars working in Foreign Policy Analysis, International Relations, International Political Economy and International Law. The workshop invited researchers to explore contemporary order-building projects by major and rising powers across issues and regions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pak K. Lee

Pak K. Lee is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics and International Relations in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom. His most recent publication is Order, Contestation and Ontological Security-Seeking in the South China Sea (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) (https://www.plagrave.com/gp/book/9783030348069; co-authored with Anisa Heritage). Email: [email protected]

Anisa Heritage is a Research Fellow in the Global Europe Centre, School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. Her current research interests are on order-building and contestation between the US and China in the Indo-Pacific region. Her first monograph (with Pak K. Lee) explores Sino-US order contestation in the South China Sea. Email: [email protected].

Zhouchen Mao is a Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He recently completed his PhD at the University of Kent, examining China's selective compliance with international norms. His research focuses on international norms, narratives and China's international behaviours. Email: [email protected].