Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The idea “strategy” has been widely used but poorly defined in international relations (IR) area. Policy-makers use the term strategy to show their policy directions towards other international actors. Scholars use the term to describe their observation on international actor’s behaviors. However, the definition of strategy and categorization of various strategy types in IR are seldom dealt. This deficiency hinders IR scholars to analyze strategy systematically, and makes discussions on different strategies difficult to communicate and compare. It also disables policy makers to have clear picture on their policy constituencies, risking exacerbating misperceptions and hostility among those at whom the policies target. Thus, establishing a clear definition of the term is a precondition for effective policymaking and academic research. If scholars and policymakers fail rigorously to define strategy, they undermine the ability to build an effective foreign policy. Hence, this research aims to build a systematic framework for analyzing strategy based on differentiation on actors’ goals and policy instruments. Through various actors’ strategies towards China, those case studies could firstly be helpful to compare strategies of various actors with different capabilities, to explain why actors choose different strategies to deal with the single actor, i.e., China. Cases selected involve with both longitudinal, spatial comparison, and dynamic comparison. Thus, the case study sheds light on how to compare various strategies based on the analytical framework constructed by this analysis. Also, by the case study, we observe how major powers deal with the rising China.