This talk is organised under the auspices of the Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Culture and Civilisation Programme
Venue: Yale-NUS College, Tan Chin Tuan Lecture Theatre
Rising China has been reshaping international order for the last two decades. Yet, we cannot assume that growing resources and capabilities automatically allow China to cause other states to change their behaviour. We can only accurately assess rising China’s impacts by first demonstrating how its growing power resources are translated into policy influence over other states. Moreover, while the most common notion of influence is the ability to cause other actors to behave in a way they would not otherwise behave, China tends to gain the support of smaller countries without forcing them to change their preferences. Like any other international actor, China draws upon military might, economic benefits, institutional authority, and ideational appeal, to purposefully coerce, induce, or persuade others to behave in ways that help achieve Chinese goals. But whether and the extent to which it succeeds is determined as much by the political context and decision-making processes of the target states, as it is by how skillfully Chinese actors deploy these tools. This lecture presents the key findings from a collaborative project that provides crucial empirical analyses of China’s actual influence over Asian states and political actors.
About Evelyn Goh
Evelyn Goh’s research expertise includes US-China relations and diplomatic history, East Asian international relations and security, and Southeast Asian strategies towards great powers. Professor Goh’s publications include The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2013, 2015); ‘Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies’, International Security 32:3 (Winter 2007/8): 113-57; and Constructing the US Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974 (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Most recently, she edited the volume Rising China’s Influence in Developing Asia (Oxford University Press, 2016) and completed a MacArthur Foundation-funded project on emerging US security partnerships with pivotal Southeast Asian countries. Professor Goh is co-editor of the Cambridge Studies in International Relations book series; and founder and Convenor of the Graduate Research and Development Network on Asian Security (GRADNAS). She holds Masters and Doctoral degrees in International Relations and an undergraduate degree in Geography, all from the University of Oxford.
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