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"Despite attempts to redress the balance, International Relations as a discipline is still dominated by Western theories. The contributors to this book explore the challenges of constructing an alternative, with a dialogue between global and local approaches. Drawing on scholars with backgrounds in the US, Europe, Asia and South America, this volume attempts to critically engage with and reflect upon existing traditions of IR theory, to produce a deeply pluralist approach. Traditions, cultures, histories and practices from around the world influence their respective theoretical understanding and in turn explain why the Western tradition of IR is insufficient. This book provides great insight for scholars of International Relations from around the world, looking for more diversity in IR theory"--

Drawing on Chinese cultural and philosophical traditions, this book offers a ground breaking reinterpretation of world politics from Yaqing Qin, one of China's leading scholars of international relations. Qin has pioneered the study of constructivism in China and developed a variant of this approach, arguing that culture defined in terms of background knowledge nurtures social theory and enables theoretical innovation. Building upon this argument, this book presents the concept of 'relationality', shifting the focus from individual actors to the relations amongst actors. This ontology of relations examines the unfolding processes whereby relations create the identities of actors and provide motivations for their actions. Appealing to scholars of international relations theory, social theory and Chinese political thought, this exciting new concept will be of particular interest to those who are seeking to bridge Eastern and Western approaches for a truly global international relations project

Summary
Diplomacy is defined as implementation of foreign policy through communication, and the ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) is the chief implementer and communicator. This article challenges the conventional definition and argues that diplomacy is relational practice in the first place. The anchoring practice of diplomacy is to make, manage and build up relations. The MFA, therefore, is the pivotal relator who, to maintain a cooperative relationship, needs to follow two principles, both inspired by ancient Chinese philosophical thinking. The first is 'the Confucian improvement', meaning that improvement of self-interest is possible if and only if other-interest is simultaneously improved, and the second, 'the Mencian optimality', holding that self-interest is best realised if and only if a community maintains optimally harmonious relations among its members. The MFA is a good implementer and communicator only if it is able to manage well complex relations in international society.

El siguiente artículo pretende analizar el desarrollo de la Teoría de Relaciones Internacionales (TRI) en China desde 1978. Basado en información recopilada de cinco importantes revistas de Relaciones Internacionales publicadas en China, así como varios clásicos occidentales traducidos e importantes obras de TRI escritas por especialistas chinos, el artículo concluye que en los últimos treinta años han intervenido en China dos procesos paralelos. Uno de ellos es un tenaz proceso de aprendizaje destinado a la adquisición y producción de conocimiento. Se trata principalmente de un proceso de aprendizaje desde occidente, en especial Estados Unidos, a través del cual las Relaciones Internacionales se han desarrollado como una disciplina académica independiente en China. La resultante competición triangular por imponerse, protagonizada por las tres escuelas de TRI importadas, esto es, realismo, liberalismo y constructivismo, coincide con los debates internos sobre el ascenso de China y su integración en la comunidad internacional. El segundo consiste en un proceso de desarrollar una escuela china de TRI. Insatisfechos con la preponderancia del discurso teórico occidental en el contexto chino, los académicos en China han intentado recuperar el pensamiento chino y establecer una perspectiva de TRI claramente china.