Chinese Foreign and Security Policy since 1945 - Einzelansicht

This seminar explores the evolution of Chinese foreign and security since the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949. It provides a framework for understanding the peculiar characteristics which have marked Chinese isolationism and expansionism, considering the most significant leaders, the impact and legacy of Maoism, policy towards Taiwan, naval policy and activities in the South China Sea, as well as the contradictions between propaganda directed towards external and domestic audiences. It seeks furthermore to explore the different models of interpretation which have been developed, including the role and influence of traditional Chinese strategic approaches and Confucian values. In addition, attention will be devoted to the extent to which cyber warfare is a major consideration in the calculations of the modern Chinese leadership.

Bo, Hu, Liu Lin, and Tang Pei, South China Sea Situations: Retrospect & Prospect (South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative: SCSPI, 2019).

Cambridge History of China, Vols. 14 & 15 (Cambridge UP, 1987, 1991).

Edward Sing Yue Chan, China’s Maritime Security Strategy: The Evolution of a Growing Sea Power (London: Routledge, 2023).

Tai Ming Cheung (ed.), Forging China’s Military Might: A New Framework for Assessing Innovation (Johns Hopkins UP: 2014).

Peter Ferdinand, ‘Westward Ho – the China Dream and “One Belt, One Road””: Chinese Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping’, International Affairs, 9(4) (2016), pp. 941-957.

Huiyun Feng, Chinese Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Decision-Making: Confucianism, Leadership and War (Asian Security Studies, 2014).

1. Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China’s Territorial Disputes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).

Saskia Hieber, Chinas Sicherheitspolitik (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2021).

Weixing Hu, ‘Xi Jinping’s “Major Country Diplomacy”: The Role of Leadership in Foreign Policy Transformation’, Journal of Contemporary China, 28 (2019), pp. 1-14.

Gustav Kempf, Die Außenpolitik Chinas: Grundlagen-Entwicklungen-Herausforderungen(Oldenbourg/DeGruyter, 2002).

David M. Lampton, Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping (Univ. of California Press, 2014).

Mingjiang Li, ‘Ideological Dilemma: Mao’s China and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1962-63’, Cold War History, 11/3 (2011), pp. 387-419.

Ning Liu, The Dynamics of Foreign-Policy Decision-making in China (London: Routledge, 2018).

Moritz Pieper, The Making of Eurasia: Competition and Cooperation between China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative and Russia (London: I.B. Tauris, 2021).

Zhihua Shen & Yafeng Xia, ‘The Great Leap Forward, the People's Commune and the Sino-Soviet Split’, Journal of Contemporary China, 20 (2011), pp. 861-880.

Odd Arne Westad, Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 (London: Basic Books, 2012).

Ian Williams, The Fire of the Dragon: China’s New Cold War (2022).

Michael Yahuda, End of Isolationism: China’s Foreign Policy after Mao (Macmillan, 2016).

Derek Yuen, Deciphering Sun Tzu: How to Read the Art of War (London: Hurst, 2014).

Claudia Zanardi, European Foreign and Security Policy towards China: The Cases of France, Germany and the United Kingdom (Palgrave, 2022).

Presentation and end of term paper (45.000 characters)