Economic Interdependence and Rising Power Grand Strategies

In Conversation with Dr. Ketian Vivian Zhang
Date
Nov 19, 2024, 4:30 pm6:00 pm
Location
Robertson Hall Bowl 001
Audience
Open to the Public

Speaker

Details

Event Description

Compared to historical rising powers, China does not use force as often as historical rising powers, prefers to utilize coercion instead of force, and tends to resort to nonmilitarized coercive tools. China exhibits a curious pattern of using nonmilitarized means to achieve its grand strategic ends. What explains China’s divergent path compared to historical rising powers such as the early American republic, Germany under Bismarck, and interwar Japan? Specifically, what is the impact of global economic interdependence on rising powers’ grand strategies? Do current global production and supply chains provide different incentives to contemporary rising powers’ grand strategies? This book intends to apply theories in international political economy to examine rising powers’ grand strategic choices, comparing China’s grand strategy against historical rising powers’ grand strategies and arguing that different kinds of economic interdependence – historically and present – influence rising powers’ grand strategies.

About the Speaker: 

Ketian Vivian Zhang is an assistant professor of international security in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She studies rising powers, coercion, economic statecraft, and maritime disputes in international relations and social movements in comparative politics, with a regional focus on China and East Asia. Her first book from Cambridge University Press examines when, why, and how China uses coercion when faced with issues of national security, such as territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas, foreign arms sales to Taiwan, and foreign leaders’ reception of the Dalai Lama. Part of her research has appeared in International Security, Journal of Strategic Studies, and Journal of Contemporary China, among other venues. Ketian is currently working on her second book that explores the relationship between economic interdependence and rising power grand strategies. Ketian received her PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018, and is also a proud badger.

 

Sponsor
CISS
Contact
Elizabeth Bachman