Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Program

Political Science

Advisor

Ming Xia

Subject Categories

International Relations

Keywords

Grand Strategy, People's Republic of China, Belt and Road Initiative, End of History, Taiwan

Abstract

Too often does the study of grand strategy, especially as it is conducted by academics based in the United States, take on an ethnocentric perspective which would lead American audiences to believe it is their country alone which possesses a coherent grand strategy that seeks to secure the national interest and nothing more. This chauvinistic approach not only leaves the majority of the world out of the conversation of grand strategy, but also results in the characterizing of the strategic approaches of non-Western states as disruptors of the foreign policy goals of the United States. The People’s Republic of China is all too often left unconsidered in the realm of grand strategy debates. If included, it is typically considered to be a force serving only to spoil the long-term goals of the United States, rather than as a state with as coherent a grand strategy as the United States pertaining to the achievement of its own national interest. This project will examine this faulty method of study common in Western academic circles, as well as the facets of Chinese global strategy which set it apart from its typical consideration as purely a disruptor of American strategy and interest. The PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative and current policy towards the island of Taiwan will be analyzed in making a judgment as to what precisely the Chinese grand strategy consists of and whether it can be considered coherent. An examination of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy will also feature prominently, in order to question how the current Chinese policy towards Taiwan acts in relation to this American intervention. Finally, this project will enter the normative realm in an analysis of Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis which will be considered as a theoretical progenitor that inspired the faulty method of grand strategic study common in the West. This thesis attempts to understand precisely and how it functions, leaving behind chauvinistic and ethnocentric methods which place American foreign policy in a position of sole importance.

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