Rising Power, Limited Influence: The Politics of Chinese Investments in Europe and the Liberal International Order

Posted on 3 April 2024

New book out now

picture of Jappe Eckhardt

A new book edited by Professor Indrajit Roy, Professor Jappe Eckhardt, Dr Dimitrios Stroikos and Dr Simona Davidescu "Rising Power, Limited Influence: The Politics of Chinese Investments in Europe and the Liberal International Order"
was published on 15th February 2024.

Abstract

China’s resurgence has spawned anxieties about an impending revision of the Liberal International Order. How do Chinese investments in Europe enable it to shape world order? Drawing on case studies from across Europe, the contributors to this volume investigate the ways in which China translates its growing resources into effective influence, with varying degrees of success. They find that influence is most effectively achieved by harnessing the agency of states and societies in Europe towards China’s preferences. Fragmented and messy rather than unified and coherent, these preferences comprise an amalgam of domestic, regional, and international considerations, rather than being aimed at revising world order. Nevertheless, as the contributors to this volume demonstrate, the interaction of European agency and Chinese preferences could have a variety of unintended consequences that range from straining the Liberal International Order to strengthening it. Against narratives that foreground inevitable conflict or assured cooperation, the volume innovates a dynamic framework to understand the granular ways in which states and societies in Europe interact with state and society in China to (re-)shape the Liberal International Order.