Why China s Thirst for Energy does not Trigger Resource Wars
The realistic notion of great power competition over shrinking oil reserves seems to fit in the patterns of China s oil diplomacy. Indeed, many pundits and politicians in Washington and elsewhere are stoking fears about the worldwide implications of China s insatiable demand for energy . In this paper, it will be argued that this view is not able to grasp the complexity of the international energy economy. It cannot provide sufficient explanations why cooperation and confrontation among China and its potential great power rivals exists in parallel. Rather the perception of the other nation s intentions and the world energy economy seems to cause both conflict and cooperation. Furthermore, the analysis shows that China s international energy policy clearly follows cooperative and market oriented lines. In order to further understand and explain China s international energy policy, alternative theoretical frameworks, beyond realism, need to be applied.
Perceptions of Danger: The China threat theory
The People's Republic of China witnessed unprecedented growth at the end of the twentieth century and the manner in which it will choose to use its consequent power in the twenty-first century has become a hotly debated topic in foreign policy circles. Some have chosen to interpret China's emergence as an economic and aspiring military superpower as a threat to the national interests of the United States and Asian-Pacific security. This threat has been categorized as ideological, economic, and strategic. This essay explores the China threat theory through an in-depth analysis of the arguments of 'anti-China hands' as outlined in a variety of right wing publications.
The Internet and the Changing Beijing-Taipei Relations: Toward Unification or Fragmentation?
Information and its technologies facilitate the exercise of what has been called “soft power,” a concept that differentiates information from the conventional dimensions of “hard power,” which is mainly associated with military force and economic influence. Soft power, according to Nye, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States, means that “A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries want to follow it, admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness. In this sense it is just as important to set the agenda in world politics and attract others as it is to force them to change through the threat or use of military or economic weapons.”1