This chapter considers how China’s grand strategy has evolved over time from strategies of survival under Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping to regaining its standing as a major power under Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and now Xi Jinping. It looks at the way Xi’s China has been particularly proactive about building Chinese economic, military, and political power and the way he has leveraged this power to make China a global power and a dominant power in Asia. In addition to external threats and opportunities, it considers how domestic factors have also shaped the contours of Chinese grand strategy. The chapter then analyses how debates about Chinese intentions, in particular towards international institutions and military expansion, colour perspectives on the potential impact of Chinese grand strategy. The main focus is on the evolution of Chinese grand strategy, its drivers, and its implications.
Chapter
18. Chinese Grand Strategy
Oriana Skylar Mastro
Chapter
6. Two-Level Games
This chapter looks into how a two-level games approach integrates international and domestic factors into a single analytical framework to explain foreign policy. It raises the argument of governments needing to simultaneously navigate international and domestic incentives and pressures when they formulate foreign policy. The two-level games approach views governments as the main strategic actors in foreign policy while being constrained by the requirement to obtain domestic ratification. The chapter then considers the perspective of the two-level games approach on international cooperation and the international bargaining power of governments. It mentions that future research on the approach should look at the determinants of government win-sets.
