System, Empire and State in Chinese International Relations

In: Review of international studies: RIS, Band 27, S. 43-63

Abstract

Argues that International relations has been ahistoric & Eurocentric, especially in relation to Ancient & Imperial China, which evolved independently of European influence until modern times. Three historical forms of international order in China are analyzed: a multi-state system in Ancient China with a comparison to the ideas & institutions in the modern European international system; the Imperial Chinese world order, Pax Sinica, which prevailed in China for two millennia; & the eventual encounter with European international society & the transformation of the Imperial China empire. Central to the empire was the tribute system of trade relations based on a hierarchy informed by Confucian values. This system could not survive in an age of European expansion & initiated the third great transformation of Chinese international relations that brings China into an emerging global society. The author concludes that the field of International relations needs to go beyond Eurocentrism by addressing the diversity & richness offered by an historical perspective of China. 1 Table. J. Moses