Alastair Iain Johnston

Treating International Institutions as Social Environments

Socialization theory is a neglected source of explanations for cooperation in international relations. Neorealism treats socialization (or selection, more properly) as a process by which autistic non-balancers are weeded out of the anarchical international system. Contractual institutionalists ignore or downplay the possibilities of socialization in international institutions in part because of the difficulties in observing changes in interests and preferences. For constructivists socialization is a central concept. But to date it has been undertheorized, or more precisely, the microprocesses of socialization have been generally left unexamined. This article focuses on two basic microprocesses in socialization theory—persuasion and social influence—and develops propositions about the social conditions under which one might expect to observe cooperation in institutions. Socialization theories pose questions for both the structural-functional foundations of contractual institutionalist hypotheses about institutional design and cooperation, and notions of optimal group size for collective action.

Is China a Status Quo Power

of China (PRC) is more integrated into, and more cooperative within, regional and global political and economic systems than ever in its history. Yet there is growing uneasiness in the United States and the Asia-Paciac region about the implications of China’s increasing economic and military power. Characterizations of Chinese diplomacy in the policy and scholarly worlds are, if anything, less optimistic of late about China’s adherence to regional and international norms. In the 1980s there was little discussion in the United States and elsewhere about whether China was or was not part of something called “the international community.” Since the early 1990s, however, scholars and practitioners alike have argued increasingly that China has not demonstrated sufaciently that it will play by so-called international rules and that somehow it must be brought into this community. The subtext is a fairly sharp othering of China that includes a civilizing discourse (China is not yet a civilized state) or perhaps a sports discourse (China is a cheater). Many of the most vigorous policy debates in the United States in recent years have been over whether it is even possible to socialize a dictatorial, nationalistic, and dissatisaed China within this putative international community. Engagers argue that China is becoming socialized, though mainly in the sphere of economic norms (e.g., free trade and domestic marketization). Skeptics either conclude that this is not the case, due to the nature of the regime (for some, China is still Red China; for more sophisticated skeptics, China is oirting with fascism), or that it could not possibly happen because China as a rising power, by deanition, is dissatisaed with the U.S.-dominated global order (a power-transition realpolitik argument). A logical conclusion is that both groups view the problem of China’s rising power as the primary Is China a Status Quo Power?

Identity as a Variable

As scholarly interest in the concept of identity continues to grow, social identities are proving to be crucially important for understanding contemporary life. Despite—or perhaps because of—the sprawl of different treatments of identity in the social sciences, the concept has remained too analytically loose to be as useful a tool as the literature’s early promise had suggested. We propose to solve this longstanding problem by developing the analytical rigor and methodological imagination that will make identity a more useful variable for the social sciences. This article offers more precision by defining collective identity as a social category that varies along two dimensions—content and contestation. Content describes the meaning of a collective identity. The content of social identities may take the form of four non-mutually-exclusive types: constitutive norms; social purposes; relational comparisons with other social categories; and cognitive models. Contestation refers to the degree of agreement within a group over the content of the shared category. Our conceptualization thus enables collective identities to be compared according to the agreement and disagreement about their meanings by the members of the group. The final section of the article looks at the methodology of identity scholarship. Addressing the wide array of methodological options on identity—including discourse analysis, surveys, and content analysis, as well as promising newer methods like experiments, agent-based modeling, and cognitive mapping—we hope to provide the kind of brush clearing that will enable the field to move forward methodologically as well.

How New and Assertive Is China's New Assertiveness?

There has been a rapidly spreading meme in U.S. pundit and academic circles since 2010 that describes Chinas recent diplomacy as “newly assertive.” This “new assertiveness” meme suffers from two problems. First, it underestimates the complexity of key episodes in Chinese diplomacy in 2010 and overestimates the amount of change. Second, the explanations for the new assertiveness claim suffer from unclear causal mechanisms and lack comparative rigor that would better contextualize Chinas diplomacy in 2010. An examination of seven cases in Chinese diplomacy at the heart of the new assertiveness meme finds that, in some instances, Chinas policy has not changed; in others, it is actually more moderate; and in still others, it is a predictable reaction to changed external conditions. In only one case—maritime disputes—does one see more assertive Chinese rhetoric and behavior. The speed and extent with which the newly assertive meme has emerged point to an understudied issue in international relations—namely, the role that online media and the blogosphere play in the creation of conventional wisdoms that might, in turn, constrain policy debates. The assertive China discourse may be a harbinger of this effect as a Sino-U.S. security dilemma emerges.

Conclusions and Extensions: Toward Mid-range Theorizing and Beyond Europe

This article reflects on three sets of issues raised by the research in this special issue. First it summarizes and critiques the core analytical claims and main scope conditions for socialization as developed by the authors. Then it examines how a critical socialization micro-process—persuasion—fits with a thin rationalist argument. I suggest that agents who are more deeply socialized may be more strategic in their behavior precisely because they are true believers. Thus the presence of strategic behavior does not undermine the possibility of persuasion. It may be an especially obvious consequence of persuasion. Finally, I examine how the authors understand socialization and identity change. Here I argue that the content of identity needs to be unpacked further into four dimensions—constitutive norms, social purpose, relational beliefs, and cognitive worldviews—in order to more fully test how much, and what type of, identity change occurs as a result of socialization. Finally, the article looks at how the findings in the European case might be extended to, and compared with, empirical evidence from other parts of the world, in particular Asia.Thanks to Jeff Checkel, Michael Glosny, and two anonymous referees for comments and criticisms.

Measuring identity : a guide for social scientists

Identity is a central concept in the social sciences. We present a laboratory experiment that measures the effects of induced group identity on participant social preferences. We find that when participants are matched with an ingroup member (as opposed to an outgroup member) they show more charity concerns when they have a higher payoff and less envy when they have a lower payoff. Likewise, while participants are more likely to reward an ingroup match for good behavior, they are less likely to punish an ingroup match for misbehavior. Furthermore, participants are significantly more likely to choose social-welfare-maximizing actions when matched with an ingroup member. All results are consistent with the notion that participants are more altruistic towards an ingroup match. As a result, ingroup matching generates significantly higher expected earnings.

Crafting cooperation : regional international institutions in comparative perspective

1. Comparing regional institutions: an introduction Amitav Acharya and Alastair Iain Johnston 2. Hanging together, institutional design and cooperation in Southeast Asia: AFTA and the ARF Yuen Foong Khong and Helen E.S. Nesadurai 3. International cooperation in Latin America: the design of regional institutions by slow accretion Jorge I. Dominguez 4. Crafting regional cooperation in Africa Jeffrey Herbst 5. Functional form, identity-driven cooperation: institutional designs and effects in post-Cold War NATO Frank Schimmelfennig 6. Designed to fail or failure of design? The origins and legacy of the Arab League Michael Barnett and Etel Solingen 7. Social mechanisms and regional cooperation: are Europe and the EU really all that different? Jeffrey T. Checkel 8. Conclusion: institutional features, cooperation effects and the agenda for further research on comparative regionalism Amitav Acharya and Alastair Iain Johnston.

China's Militarized Interstate Dispute Behaviour 1949–1992: A First Cut at the Data *

Chinas military exercises in the Taiwan Strait in 1995–96 accentuated concerns among states in the Asia-Pacific region about what kind of great power China will become if its economic growth continues at present rates and if its domestic political system does not change appreciably. In most respects many Chinese internal post-mortems on the crisis were quite similar to those in other states: coercive diplomacy led to an increase in voter support for Beijings nemesis, Lee Teng-hui, and it increased worries among surrounding states about how China might handle bilateral disputes with them; but it also showed just how seriously the Chinese regime takes threats to the related interests of territorial integrity and domestic legitimacy.

Chinese Middle Class Attitudes Towards International Affairs: Nascent Liberalization

There is a growing interest in the preferences of an emerging middle class in China towards domestic reform. But little attention has been paid to middle class views on world affairs and foreign policy. Given the murky trajectory of political reform in China it is uncertain how middle class preferences may affect government policy. But with the growing role of entrepreneurs in policy-making, one could plausibly expect that middle class voices will increasingly be heard at the top. We need to know what these voices are saying. Using longtitudinal data from the Beijing Area Study this article examines the attitudes of Beijings middle class towards free trade, international institutions, military spending, the United States and nationalism. It finds that generally the middle class exhibits a greater level of nascent liberalism than poorer income groups. This is consistent with what various international relations theories would expect.

Crafting Cooperation: Comparing regional institutions: an introduction

Why study institutional design? During the past decade regionalism has received increasing attention as a major potential force for global change. While regionalism has been a consistent feature of the global security and economic architecture since World War II, the end of the Cold War and economic regionalization in the context of a rapidly integrating global economy have led to a new emphasis on regionalism. But the make-up and performance of regional organizations around the world is marked by a great deal of diversity. For example, Europe not only exhibits the highest institutional density in terms of the number of overlapping regional mechanisms, but individual European regional groupings also tend to be more heavily institutionalized and intrusive, especially in terms of their approach to issues that affect state sovereignty (such as human rights). Yet, they lag behind many other regions, such as Africa and Asia, in terms of their inclusiveness and flexibility in decision-making. Asian institutions, relatively new on the international stage, have claimed uniqueness in terms of their decision-making norms and approach to socialization, but many have questioned their effectiveness in managing security dilemmas and the economic vulnerabilities of their members. Why, then, does it appear that different forms of institutionalization develop in different regions of the world? From a simple functionalist perspective one should not expect too much variation around the world, where states generally face similar kinds of cooperation problems.