China's Rise and IR Theory – Yan Xuetong

UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China

No foreign policy topic currently garners more attention in the United States than its relationship with China, especially in light of China’s rise over the past few decades as an economic, technological, military, and strategic power and rival. In this episode, Neysun Mahboubi discusses with Yan Xuetong, one of China’s leading experts on international relations, how China’s rise, and its ever more complex and fraught relationship with the United States, look from a domestic Chinese perspective, and through the lens of Professor Yan’s distinctive work on IR theory. The episode was recorded on April 20, 2019.

Yan Xuetong is Dean of the Institute for International Relations at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, and Senior Advisor to the Chinese Journal of International Politics. He also serves as President of the Management Board of Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. He is a prolific and influential author, and his recent books include Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power (Princeton, 2011) and Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers (Princeton, 2019). Previously, he served for many years as a research fellow of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, the premier government-connected research institute on international affairs in China. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sound engineering: Neysun Mahboubi

Music credit: "Salt" by Poppy Ackroyd, follow her at http://poppyackroyd.com