Alan Hunter

China and the New International Security Agenda

In 1989, two scholars from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) described China as: “a regional power with global strategic significance and political influence” (Hao/Huan 1989: xxix). A contention in this article is that the PRC should now be understood as a global power in its own right, at least in economic terms, marking an extremely significant power-shift. However, this statement does not mean that China is a military threat to the U.S.; on the contrary, it is still very far behind the U.S. in military expenditure, technology, and power-projection. Our second argument is that Chinese leaders have publicly committed to making this power-transition a peaceful one. Such commitments may be a smokescreen for an underlying orientation towards violent conflict, but we argue that the PRC leadership would much prefer to maintain regional and global peace. We also suggest that there are significant challenges to China’s security aims of transiting to a global power status while preserving peace. First, relations between the PRC, Taiwan, and Japan remain tense in the early years of the millennium, a triangular relationship that is a major flashpoint and one that could embroil the U.S. Second, China’s economic expansion has led to environmental damage at home and competition for resources internationally. All the above issues should be understood within the context of Beijing’s non-negotiable commitment to a ‘One China’ policy, discussed below.

Artificial Intelligence and Human Security

The World Economic Forum is often portrayed as a bastion of global elitism. Nevertheless, its 2014 list of the most urgent global problems reads like a Marxist critique of advanced capitalism: deepening inequalities, persistent jobless growth, lack of leadership, and weakening of democracy are among the top 10 global problems, along with environmental issues and international politics (World Economic Forum 2014). This constellation of urgent issues could certainly be characterized as constituting a ‘wicked’ problem, that is, super-complex, persistent, and resistant to resolution; partial solutions of one aspect often leading to intensification of others.

New Perspectives on Conflict Prevention

This article reviews three books offering potential new insights for preventing conflict violence. The rationale for preventive response to warnings of imminent conflict seems obvious: effective ea...