Description
Over the past decade, a new historiography has emerged that explores the origins of the Chinese discipline of International Relations (IR) and the evolution of Chinese ideas about world politics. This body of work has largely concentrated on the post-Mao era, a pivotal period that enabled the introduction of Western IR traditions through the efforts of US institutions and Sino–American educational exchanges. Although the role of these institutions was undeniably crucial in promoting Western IR after 1978, existing scholarship tends to overstate the significance of Sino–American connections. This emphasis has, in turn, obscured the contributions of other actors who also profoundly influenced the development of Chinese IR and the socialisation of Chinese IR scholars during the period of China’s opening up. Drawing on original archival research and an analysis of leading Chinese academic journals from the 1980s to the 2000s, this article offers a fresh account of how British IR ideas travelled to China, and how they were produced and reproduced within both the Chinese IR community and the state.
