Globalization and global governance
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Globalization and global governance Zheng Chen1 Received: 8 May 2020 / Accepted: 19 May 2020 © The Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University 2020
1 China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status, by Courtney J. Fung, Oxford University Press, 2019, 304 pages, £45.00 While China still refuses to endorse humanitarian intervention and regime change, its policies towards international interventions have varied, as in the recent cases of Darfur, Libya, and Syria. What explains China’s response to intervention at the UN Security Council? Courtney Fung’s new book offers an insightful analysis of China’s engagement with the UN Security Council on humanitarian intervention issues. Fung argues that while material factors are necessary, they are insufficient for a robust explanation of China’s different reactions. Instead, “status”—a state’s “standing or rank in a status community”—is an important factor with both causal and constitutive effects in determining China’s policies on intervention. In particular, Fung suggests that status concerns shape China’s response to intervention through China’s peer groups. China is motivated by its twin status as both a great power and a developing state. Beijing wants recognition from the three Western permanent members of the UN Security Council—namely the United States, the United Kingdom, and France (the so-called “P3”)—and representatives of the developing world, particularly regional organizations. China seeks status gains from both of these groups. Beijing is most concerned about securing status when two conditions are met: (1) a status trigger accentuates preexisting status concerns; and (2) the above peer groups share the same policy position on relevant debates and are willing to exact social costs for non-compliance. Under certain conditions, the peer groups are able to modify China’s preferences, even getting China to permit international intervention. On the basis of an impressive range of primary evidence, including over 200 interviews, Fung utilizes three case studies on Sudan, Libya, and Syria to examine how status pressures affect China’s position on intervention at the UN Security Council. These three cases show variance in China’s response to intervention, as demonstrated by Beijing’s adoption of varying voting behaviors, diplomatic * Zheng Chen [email protected] 1
School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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China International Strategy Review
maneuvers, and discursive responses. Chapter 4 analyzes China’s shift of its position on intervention in Sudan with regard to the Darfur crisis, in which it changed from insisting that Sudan’s problems were domestic affairs to actively engaging in intervention. With this case, Fung demonstrates that status is the key variable that explains China’s policy changes: the alignment of interests among the P3, which called for a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, and the relevant regional organizatio
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