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IR, Area Studies and IPE: Rethinking the Study of China's International Relations

Shaun Breslin

CSGR Working Paper No. 94/02

April 2002

 

Abstract:

 

This paper attempts to provide a new framework of analysis for understanding China’s international relations. It argues that “traditional” conceptions of international relations, based on “statist” and “realist” methodology, do not capture the dynamics of China’s international relations in an era of globalisation. Rather, we need to consider the analytical tools of international political economy as a means of breaking down the analytical barriers between the domestic and the international, and between politics and economics. At the same time as enriching the study of China, such an approach can also enrich the discipline of international political economy, by breaking away from the OECD-centric nature of much research in the field.

Keywords: China, International Relations, International Political Economy, Area Studies.

Address for correspondence:

Dr Shaun Breslin
Principal Research Fellow
Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation* and Reader in Politics
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
Co-Editor, The Pacific Review
Tel: 44 24 76572558
Fax: 44 24 76572548
Email: Shaun.Breslin@Warwick.ac.uk

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