Research
Professor Shaun Breslin
Click on the book covers to the right to find more information on my authored and edited books, and here for a cv type list of publications.
Downloadable Papers, Videos and Commentaries
A variety of working papers, think pieces, conference papers and the occasional unpublished (and probably unpublishable) wild rambing. There's the odd podcast, radio piece and video in there somewhere as well. They are in chronological order with the most recent at the top.
Information on academic books and papers is provided on a separate page which lists all of my publications and research activities. Some of these are available via via Warwick University's Research Archive Portal and others direct from the journal publishers. These papers are published journal articles, and have varying degrees of access depending on individual publishers' access rules.
EuroHub4SinoLink opens in a new window is a new EU funded project designed to increase understanding about China and its importance for Europe. As part of the project we are publishing a number of different types of papers. These include:
My Long Read on "The Two Integrations and the (Increasing) Chineseness of Chinese Marxism",Link opens in a new window 25th March 2024.
With Jeremy Garlick, a Policy Paper on “China's New Global Governance InstitutionsLink opens in a new window”, 2nd April 2024.
With Liisa Kauppila and Elina Sinkkonen, "Is De-Risking” Possible? Responding to China-Related Economic InsecuritiesLink opens in a new window", 9th April 2024.
The FORACLink opens in a new window project funded by the Academy of Finland was designed to assess how a small open economy could increase its economic security - not least as a result of China's increasing global significance. The final report from 2023 is available hereLink opens in a new window and if you have a lot of time on your hands you can watch the report's launch conference hereLink opens in a new window.
A chapter with my friend Giuseppe GabusiLink opens in a new window on 100 years of the Political Economy of the CCP.Link opens in a new window This was written for the anniversary in 2021 but didn't come out until a couple of years later.
We produced a special issue of The Pacific Review in 2023 on Economic Statecraft in the Asia-PacificLink opens in a new window. The IntroductionLink opens in a new window written with my friend and long term collaborator Helen Nesadurai is Open Access and so available to download. Our Introduction to our 2018 Special Issue of the Journal of Contemporary Asia, Who Governs and How? Non-State Actors and Transnational Governance in Southeast AsiaLink opens in a new window, is also Open Access.
Another Open Access academic article, this time with Pete Burnham on “International Order Transition and the UK’s Tilt to the `Indo-Pacific’Link opens in a new window” in the Pacific Review in 2023.
“China Risen?”, Politics in the End Time PodcastLink opens in a new window with Daryll Jarvis and Toby Carroll, released October 2021.
D2 BRI DialoguesLink opens in a new window, Conversation with Ali Borhani and Anoush Ehteshami, posted September 2021.
“Why we should look at China in shades of Grey”, Departures Podcast with Robert AmsterdamLink opens in a new window, released 18th August 2021.
Shaun Breslin, "Chinese Economic Statecraft. An Illiberal Actor in a (more) Liberal Global Economy: Who is Changing Who?"Link opens in a new window, in Giuseppe Gabusi (ed) Drivers of Global Change: Responding to East Asian Economic and Institutional Innovation (Torino: T-Wai): 5-9. There is also a short introductory video here.
Shaun Breslin, “Do we need a new vocabulary for talking about European strategy?”, in Michiel Foulon and Jack Thompson (eds) The Future of European Strategy in a Changing Geopolitical Environment: Challenges and ProspectLink opens in a new window (Zurich: ETH Center for Security Studies).
Does China See itself as a Great Power?Link opens in a new window Rana Mitter interviews Pan Suyan and me for an Asia Matters podcast, released 8th June 2021.
Complementary Scenarios for China's Post Pandemic Economy, a short piece that forms part of an ISPI Dossier on China After Covid-19: Great Challenges Under Heaven, 16th July, 2020.
Along with Chen Dingding I was interviewed on the 2020 "two sessions" in China for the Asia Matters podcast in June 2020, which is available here.
Luiss University organised a Facebook Live Webinar on “Global Governance and Covid-19: Implications for Europe and its Relations with China” in May 2020. Last time I looked you could still view it here.
“Non Traditional Security for Who/What? Between the International, the National and the Human”, my contribution to A New Responsible Power China? China's Public Diplomacy for Global Public Goods, edited by Ines Sieckmann and Odila Triebel for the Stuutgart Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen in 2018.
Two versions of the same paper for the 2018 ISPI report - Big Powers Are Back: What About Europe? edited by Alessandro Colombo and Paolo Magri. One in English and the other in Italian. The links are to pages where you can download the whole report rather than just mt chapter (on “China, A New Model of Great Power”).
And on a similar theme, two ISPI Commentarries on “Global Leadership 2018: China’s Turn?” from 1 January 2018 and “China and the World: How to Become (and Stay) a Great Power” from 18 October 2017.
An opinion piece in The Times from October 2017 on “President Xi puts faith in four-point plan”. Access is free but you will have to register to see it.
Shaun Breslin, “Revisiting the developmental state 3: Fitting China into the debate”, SPERI.comment: The Political Economy Blog, University of Sheffield, 10 October 2017. This was part of a wider and very interesting debate on the developmental state and you can read the other entries here.
The final report on the GREEN project - (Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks) from January 2017 s available here via the European Commission Community and Development Information Service.
A couple of think pieces on China's evolving global role. One on Xi Jinping's visit to the US in September 2015 for Chatham House, and the other on China's role in Afghanistan for The Conversation.
After a roundtable on the UK and Asia I took part in a Chatham House podcast on Does Britain Matter in East Asia, with Robin Niblett (Chatham House Director), Linda Yueh (chief business correspondent for BBC News), and Stephen Lillie (Asia-Pacific director at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office).
Shaun Breslin, “APEC summit shows how hard it is to define the Asian ‘region’”, The Conversation, 11 November 2014.
The China Daily did a piece on my views on investment in China in August 2014, which you can access by clicking on the picture below
Shaun Breslin, “Why Russia and China are United by More than Pipeline Politics,” Euractiv, June 2014
A short ISPI video on the role of provinces in China's political economy.
The ASAN Institute in Seoul held a conference in April 2014 that explored the nature of Chinese Power. My presentation on China as a Global Power was part of a panel with Evelyn Goh and David Kang. The whole session is the best part of an hour
and a half long so be prepared. The whole day was filmed, and the entire proceedings are available on the conference website.
A short interview before my talk at the 2014 The National Association of Pension Funds conference in Edinburgh on the investment environment in China.
A short ISPI paper on the first year of the Chinese leadership from November 2013. This was followed up by an event at Chatham House in the spring of 2014 where Jane Duckett, Chris Hughes, Rob Gifford and myself discussed the importance of the Third Plenum meeting that signalled a new round of reforms in China.
Here is a short piece I had in The Conversation on Chinese debt, and a Chatham House video that covers the same sort of issues.
I had the honour of being invited to give the opening keynote presentation at the annual Australian Political Science Association Conference in Perth in September 2013, on the international politics of Chinese resource (in)security. The talk was videod but without the slides. So click here Link opens in a new windowfor the slides and on the image below for a video of the talk. Beware - its just over an hour long.
At the same conference I was on a very interesting roundtable on Governing the Resource Boom, where I for one learnt an enormous amount from Jeff Wilson, Ronnie Lipschutz, Serena Lillywhite, Peter Vale and Sarah Hooper
Shaun Breslin. “Does function matter? Researching comparative regional governance”, GR:EEN Working Paper No. 33, March 2013, available at
In October 2012 we produced a Chatham House Programme Report on China and the International Human Rights System.
An ISPI working paper on China and the Arab Awakening from 2012.
As part of the EU-China Research Advisory Network, we held an event at Chatham House to mark the October 2012 EU-China Summit. My comments on the geostrategic context of the relationship were videod and can be found here.
More on Chinese Soft Power in a Stiftung Mercator report on "Bridging the Cultural Divide" from 2012.
I had a short paper on “China’s Resource Foreign Policy” published in a report on "China’s Geoeconomic Strategy" produced by Nick Kitchen at the LSE in 2012.
A departure from my usual work, and a paper on “(Not) Reconciling International Security With Non-Traditional Security Studies: Westphalia, The ‘West’ and the Long Shadow of 1944”. This was produced while I was a Macarthur visiting fellow at the Center for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2011, and is part of their working paper series.
A paper on The Soft Notion of China’s Soft Power. This paper was produced as part of the Chatham House Asia Programme and is an updated version of a short article on problems of defining of China's Soft Power for Ethos, the journal of the Singapore Civil Service College.
The first draft of a paper on State-Enterprise relations in China that was later revised for publication in a collection edited by Andrew Walter and Xiaoke Zhang. This version is a CSGR Working Paper.
The introduction that we (Richard Higgott and myself) wrote for out four volume collection on the International Relations of the Asia Pacific, published by Sage. Click on the image of the cover on the riight for publication and ordering details.
Warwick is establishing a collaboration with Boston University. As part of this partnership, Boston hosted two workshops in September 2010; one on the global financial crisis, and another on South-South cooperation. Links to the papers that I presented at each will be added when published, but in the meantime, here are a couple of videos of conversations I had with Rachel Thrasher and Adil Najam on the project on South-South cooperation, and the work of the Frederick S Pardee Centre for the Study of the Longer Range Future at Boston.
A Chatham House programme paper on Online Chinese Nationalism - which provides an "executive summary" of the book I edited with Simon Shen on the same topic. This paper was produced as part of the Chatham House Asia Programme.
Simon Evenett produced a very interesting ebook for VoxeuLink opens in a new window on the currency dispute between China and (primarily) the USA. I have a short chapter in it called "Great Expectations: (Competing) Domestic Drivers of Chinese Policy Deliberations" - but the value is in the book as a whole and it can be accessed hereLink opens in a new window.
The China Review, the magazine of the Great Britain-China CentreLink opens in a new window, produced a special issue to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Amongst the papers, you will find my offering on democratisation and political participation - click here for the entire edition.
Click here for a short piece I did for Oxfam Australia as a briefing background paper for their discussions on how to respond to new rising powers.
I spent the first part of 2009 as Visiting Professor at Beijing University. This coincided with the annual session of the National People's Congress and I was invited by China Radio International to discuss the conference on this radio broadcast (the file is WMA format). My bit is near the end, but the discussion before my contribution are certainly worth listening to.
I was asked to write an overview of thirty years of investment and trade policy in China for a book commemorating three decades of reform. Having written the chapter, I've heard no more about the book at all, so I thought I would put it up here until and unless the book ever appears. Its called How China Changed the Global Economy and the Global Economy Changed China and its basically an overview of what I consider to be five phases of China's initial global economic strategy (so far).
China: Democratising one-party rule? is a working paper published by the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior in Spain. A much shortened version of it will be published in New Challenges to Democratization edited by Peter Burnell and Richard Youngs in 2009. Click here for info on the book from the Routledge website.
A Warwick University icast videoLink opens in a new window where I bang on (as usual) about China still having developmental problems that might constrain global ambitions and abilities (again).
The International Affairs Forum do a roundtable each January on what the coming year has to offer for a range of countries - and this year, I did the entry on China in 2008 (the entries are alphabetical so scroll down to the 6th having read the others first). The UK entry is done by my colleague, Wyn Grant.
Supplying Demand or Demanding Supply? An Alternative Look at the Forces Driving East Asian Community Building is a policy analysis brief published by and for the Stanley Foundation in Washington D.C.
China’s Rise to leadership in Asia – strategies, obstacles and achievements was presented at a conference on Regional Powers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Near and Middle East organised by the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg in December 2006. Click here for the full conference programme.
A short opinion piece form the Shanghai Daily on Chinese Trade from September 2006 (I don't think the cartoon is meant to be of me, but you never know). This was abstracted from my presentation at the Second World Forum on Chinese Studies in Shanghai, organised by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The paper was called Constructing Visions of China, and was in a panel on how the outside world views China.
The Shanghai paper builds on the papers that I gave at the March 2006 50th Anniversary Conference of the German Institut für AsienkundeLink opens in a new window . The conference considered how different disciplines study the region (defined for the conference as China, Japan and Southeast Asia) and asked what new trends are emerging in these disciplines. My paper considered Trends of Scholarship in the Study of the Politics and International Relations of Contemporary China, and this revised version was published in the June 2006 editi on of China Aktuell - Journal of Current Chinese AffairsLink opens in a new window.
Not a paper, but an online interview - part of Warwick University's podcast seriesLink opens in a new window.
(UN)Making International Norms: The United Nations and Global Governance. This is the first draft of a chapter that appeared in Glenn Hook and Hugo Dobson (eds) Global Governance and Japan (London: Routledge, 2006).
Studying Regionalism(s): Comparitivism and EurocentricismLink opens in a new window. A very rough paper presented at the Joint Fudan University, Sciences Po, and LSE conference on China and East Asian Regionalism in Shanghai, January 2005. A revised version of this paper will be published in Melissa Curley and Nicholas Thomas (eds) Advancing East Asian Regionalism (London: Routledge, 2006).
An unpublished paper written in 2004 on Foreign Direct Investment in China: What the Figures Don't Tell Us that I later revised and split into two different papers.
Beyond Diplomacy? UK Relations With China Since 1997 in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 2004, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 409-425 published by Blackwell Publishing. Many thanks to Blackwell for permission to reproduce the article here.
Reforming China’s Embedded Socialist Compromise: China and the WTO in Global Change (Pacifica Review), 2003, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 213 - 229 published by Taylor and Francis Journals. Many thanks to Taylor and Francis for permission to reproduce the article here.
Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: the Public, the Private and the International A Murdoch University Asia Research Centre Working Paper.
China in the Asian Economy This Chapter appears in a collection called Does China Matter? A Reassessment edited by Barry Buzan and Rosemary Foot to commemorate the work of the late Gerry Segal. It is a collection of essays reflecting on one of Gerry's most provocative papers, "Does China Matter?" which appeared in Foreign Affairs.
Growth Without Development? An IPEG Paper in Global Political Economy, first presented at the British International Studies Association (BISA) conference in December 2002
You can read the introduction to Microregionalism and World Order here.
In 2000 I was appointed specialist advisor to the Foreign Affairs select committee of the House of Commons to investigate UK relations with China after 1997. The resulting parliamentary report can be viewed here.
Decentralisation, Globalisation and China’s Partial Re-engagement with the Global Economy in New Political Economy, 2000, vol.5, no.2, pp. 205-226 published by Taylor and Francis Journals. Many thanks to Taylor and Francis for permission to reproduce the article here.
Shaun Breslin and Richard Higgott "Studying Regions: Assessing the New, Learning from the Old" in , New Political Economy, 2000, vol. 5, no.3, pp. 333-353 published by Taylor and Francis Journals. Many thanks to Taylor and Francis for permission to reproduce the article here.
Democratisation in East Asia is a sample chapter from Peter Burnell's edited collection, "Democratisation Through the Looking Glass", published by Manchester University Press
IR, Area Studies and IPE: Rethinking the Study of China's International Relationsa CSGR working paper. Click HERE for a Chinese version translated by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Your browser will need to be set to read Chinese characters. A slightly different version of this paper was presented at a conference at the ANU in Canberra in 2002, and is published in the ANU National Europe Centre Working paper series as Beyond Bilateralism: Rethinking the Study of China's International Relations
Shaun Breslin, Richard Higgott and Ben Rosamond Regions in Comparative Perspective a CSGR working paper
(Still) Learning to Live Without the Plan? The Politics of Financial Reform in the People's Republic of China a CSGR working paper
Decentralisation, Globalisation and the "Creation" of Trans-National Economic Regions in the People's Republic of China a CSGR working paper
"Made in China": The Growth of Chinese Tradea CSGR working paper
China’s Political Economy In The Post-Cold War Era: From Plan To What? Paper presented at the Political Studies Association (PSA) annual conference in 1995 (so a bit out of date now)
My PhD on Changing Centre Province Relations in the People's Republic of China was awarded by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1993. Beware - this is a very large file. This formed the basis of my first single authored book, China in the 1980s: Centre-Province Relations in a Reforming Socialist State, published by Macmillan
