Appeasing a Rising China: Implications for Peace and Democracy

Princeton University presents Edward Friedman's talk on the challenges to peace from China's rise to become a hegemonic superpower.

Edward Friedman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This Lecture explores the challenges to peace from China’s rise to become a hegemonic superpower.  The rise is understood through the lens of power transition theory combined with an analysis of national identity construction, with nationalism understood as both a legitimator of policy and also the builder of the tracks setting the direction on which the engineer at the helm of the state will drive.  These dynamizing factors are comprehended within a setting of political conflict among ruling elites.  The resulting synthesis of approaches produces an explanation of authoritarian China’s challenge to the world democracies and the dominant tendencies among the democracies responding to China’s challenge, understood in this analysis as appeasement, but understood in China as a threatening containment aimed at blocking China’s rise to a deserved status as the hegemonic superpower.  This can be seen as a typical security dilemma.