Gregory T. Chin

Emerging Powers and Africa: Implications for/from Global Governance?

This article examines the increasing engagement between the ‘emerging powers’ and African countries, and the implications for international governance. The global power dynamic is undergoing a cumulative reordering process, where countries including China, India, Brazil and Russia are occupying increasingly prominent roles in the international system. In their approach to Africa, the ‘BRIC’ countries have employed a mix of soft power, public diplomacy, direct investment and private sector partnerships to deepen relations. This article suggests that strict macro-economic explanations do not allow for the myriad political, strategic and social matters that are arising in this engagement. The analytical complexities of these emerging modes of South–South cooperation are examined at state and societal levels from a political economy perspective. Despite their differing intentions, Africa and the emerging powers appear to share common goals of advancing their respective national economies and enhancing their diplomatic status. These shifts are further giving rise to a new ‘global middle’. The emergence of this multi-layered international order challenges scholars to stretch conceptions of world order, multipolarity and interdependence. The article concludes by surveying the relevance of BRIC interests in Africa for various subfields in international relations and points to areas for further research.

Introduction: rising states, rising donors and the global aid regime

There is general consensus in scholarly and policy circles that the global aid regime is undergoing major changes. Analysts have examined the emerging trends in development cooperation, and have identified the ‘emerging donors’ and other ‘non-DAC [Development Assistance Committee] donors’ as the source of important quantitative shifts in global aid flows (Manning 2006). Some scholars have described systemic fracturing in the established global aid regime (Woods 2008), while others have discussed the declining effectiveness of the traditional donors, a weakening of the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’ or the decline in the conventional structures of the aid delivery mechanism led by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) DAC (Lancaster 2007; Birdsall and Fukuyama 2011; Chaturvedi et al 2012). There is a burgeoning literature around the impact of the rising states on Africa, in trade, aid and investment, society and politics, especially China’s impact (Taylor 2006; 2008; Alden 2007; Rotberg 2008; De Haan 2010; Krageland 2011). Yet much is to be done in terms of systematically and critically analysing the details of the policy intentions, political-economic motivations and programing objectives of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as aid providers and their impact on the less developed countries.

China, regional institution-building and the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area

ABSTRACT This article uses the concepts of critical juncture and feedback effects in historical institutionalism to examine Chinas role in promoting a China–ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA). The first section examines the specific combination of structural factors and key intervention from Chinese policymakers that triggered the CAFTA process. The second section outlines the details of the CAFTA negotiations, analyzing the feedback effects that shaped the path and eventual outcomes of the CAFTA Agreement. Attention is given to Chinas initiation of a programme of ‘early harvest’ agreements that were added to the CAFTA Agreement Framework in order to help persuade the hesitant states in the region to enlist in the China-led conception of Asian regionalism.

China as a ‘net donor’: tracking dollars and sense

The article examines Chinas emergence over the past decade as a net donor, and the implications of this status in global development. The analysis begins by outlining Chinas rise as a net donor, drawing comparisons in two-way aid flows with the other rising states, specifically Brazil, South Africa and India, and then turns to the implications of Chinas rise as an aid sender. The central argument is that conceptualizing Chinas rise as a ‘net donor’ is crucial for understanding the hybrid position that China has come to occupy in the global aid system, and the consequences of this positioning. Although China has achieved remarkable success with its own development, rather than join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments Development Assistance Committee (DAC) regime of traditional donors, the Chinese Communist Party and government leadership has chosen instead to continue to self-identify with the countries of the South, and to construct ties of South–South cooperation outside of DAC arrangements. The Chinese leadership is trying to stake out an unprecedented position in the global aid system, traversing the North–South divide, despite the fact that China has already joined the ranks of world economic powers.

Responding to the Global Financial Crisis : The Evolution of Asian Regionalism and Economic Globalization

This paper examines the evolving dynamics between economic globalization and Asian regional interdependence, and asks whether and how the global financial crisis impacted Asian regionalism. The analysis suggests that the global crisis did trigger advances in regional policy cooperation from 2007 onwards, especially in the area of financial and monetary cooperation. Although the first order response of Asian countries was to join the broader global effort to contain financial freefall at the world level, there emerged a second order response at the level of regional institutional building, specifically to “multilateralize” the Chiang Mai Initiative, and to develop a regional trust fund to help strengthen Asian bond markets.

Understanding Currency Policy and Central Banking in China

Chinas trade and financial surpluses, exchange rate, and currency reserves make headlines, daily, around the world. As such, it is more imperative than ever to understand the inner workings of currency policy in China. Yet the exercise of power and decision making in these areas has received surprisingly little attention in Chinese politics, political economy, and, arguably, economics.

Turning point: International money and finance in Chinese IPE

ABSTRACT Unlike the depth of international political economy (IPE) research on finance and money in North America and Britain/Europe, or the amount of work that has been done inside China on the IPE of international trade, the IPE of global finance and money is still at a nascent stage inside China. The paper examines the evolution of Chinese IPE research on global finance and money and suggests that research in these issue areas appears to be reaching a turning point. The main empirical finding is that this shift in knowledge production has been induced principally by Chinas emergence as a financial force and the national developmental concerns this entails, as well as by the onset of the 2008–09 global financial crisis and the rise of the emerging economies’ grouping. The growing Chinese scholarship on the IPE of finance and money is adding analytical depth and broadening Chinese IPE, particularly on the impact of financial globalization on developing and emerging economies. While such research will likely contribute to Chinese policymaking in the future, the scholarly test for Chinese IPE is whether and how it will contribute to filling the global knowledge gaps on the determinants of financial and monetary policy, and whether it will give rise to new understandings on global finance and money, especially the causes of international financial crises. Heretofore, much of the literature has been heavily policy-oriented and normative.

Introduction – IPE with China's characteristics

ABSTRACT This article serves as an introduction to the five articles submitted for the special issue on IPE in China. In addition to summarizing the special issue articles on key themes in IPE, we outline the genesis of IPE as a field of study inside China, detail the core characteristics of Chinese IPE, as seen in this special issue, and consider the limits of the development of Chinese IPE to date. Finally, we provide a road map for the development of the IPE field in China, and identify the potential contributions which the Chinese scholarship could make to knowledge creation in IPE, and to the global conversation, in the future.

The State of the Art: Trends in the Study of the BRICS and Multilateral Organizations

This chapter provides a preliminary assessment of this emerging body of literature on rising powers and multilateral organizations, mapping its evolution, the main contours, foundational works, key contributions, gaps and promising future research agendas. The main finding is that the literature on the BRICS and multilateral organizations has evolved in three phases, and is currently in the middle of the third phase. The foundational work in Phase One focussed mainly on how the contemporary group of rising states positioned themselves in relation to the established multilateral arrangements and the global order more broadly. The literature in the Second Phase delved more deeply into the preferences of the individual rising states to assess whether, or to what degree, the rising powers actually want to be incorporated into the existing global multilateral arrangements. Wading into comparisons of their foreign policy agendas, the contributions gauged whether the rising powers were behaving as “status quo or revisionist” powers, the issue of their socialization into the existing multilateral arrangements, and some focussed on how best to “manage” their integration into the existing international regimes. However, for the Third Phase, we can observe an analytical shift in the focus of the emerging research and published work. Whereas the early literature, especially that related to China’s global rise (e.g. Johnston and Ross, 1999), was oriented toward managing the integration of the rising states into the established multilateral institutions, the emerging literature addresses the main gap heretofore in the literature: that is, whether the rising powers are trying to (re)shape some global norms and rules even while they selectively internalize some of the established global rules.

Asian Regionalism After the Global Financial Crisis

This chapter examines the evolving dynamics between economic globalization and Asian regional interdependence, and asks whether and how the global financial crisis impacted Asian regionalism. The analysis suggests that the global crisis did trigger advances in regional policy cooperation from 2008 onwards, especially in the area of financial and monetary cooperation. Although the first order response of Asian countries was to join the broader global effort to contain financial freefall at the world level, there emerged a second order response at the level of regional institutional building, specifically to “multilateralize” the Chiang Mai Initiative, and to develop a regional trust fund to help strengthen Asian bond markets. This finding reconfirms the theoretical proposition in historical institutionalism that financial crises have a catalytic effect in stimulating regional innovation. At the same time, we see evolution in the pattern of Asian regionalism in two respects: first, the recent advances in Asian regionalism are being driven primarily, at this stage, by the rise of the PRC and India—although each in their own way, and to varying degrees. The current advance in regionalism also builds on momentum provided by pre-existing programs of regional financial cooperation, namely the Chiang Mai Initiative, and “regional connectivity” programs that have also been championed by Japan and ASEAN countries, such as the GMS, CAREC, and BIMSTEC initiatives. Second, Asian economies appear to be pursuing inclusive regionalism, which attempts to strike a balance between helping themselves and helping the global economy. Asia is striving for modes of regional cooperation that are, on balance, complementary with the current global macroeconomic rebalancing agenda of the G20, and supportive of global integration and openness. The main policy findings are that Asia’s future standing in an increasingly multicentered world economy will be determined by its effectiveness in advancing a multilayered international cooperation agenda. Yet achieving such international gains will depend on Asia’s willingness to make serious advances in regional collective action and global leadership, especially in areas of financial and monetary cooperation.