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Rising Star
Book

Rising Star

China's New Security Diplomacy

Bates Gill
Brookings Institution Press, 2007

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Editorial Rating

8

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once described diplomacy as “the art of restraining power.” As China unleashes its economic power, and its political and military strengths continue to mount, what role will diplomacy play in China’s fate in the 21st century? In great depth and detail, author Bates Gill, an expert on China’s foreign policy, explains a dramatic change in the way China views the world, and in its approach to national security and international relations. This shift has taken China far from the Maoist age of supporting terrorism and counterrevolution, and into a new era that emphasizes collaboration and cooperation, participation in international initiatives, and some compromise on such issues as sovereignty. Gill scrutinizes each cog in China’s diplomatic machine (except the U.S.'s debt, which has grown in signficance over time) and provides a thorough historical background. Though this book is remarkably well-researched and revealing, its style is more suitable to academia than to general interest reading. Yet, getAbstract reckons that international relations enthusiasts with an interest in China’s role in the world can learn a lot from it.

Take-Aways

  • Unfair decisions against China by the post-World War I powers provoked its closed approach to foreign relations and security policies throughout the 20th century.
  • Under Chairman Mao, China prepared for what it saw as inevitable international war.
  • Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, China U-turned its approach to security diplomacy. It now bets on peace and development.

About the Author

Bates Gill is the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. He is a co-author of China: The Balance Sheet. He is the former director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

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