The principles of Strategy and China's Strategem in World Politics
Name：
SHI Yinhong
Nationality：
China
Academic Title：Professor
Home University Renmin University of
（From）：
China
Email Address： y.shi@263.com
Undergraduate
Master
English
None
Lecture, with some discussion in class and independent reading.
(1)Presence and participation 30%
(2)Final research paper 70%
2 credits
Dr. Yinhong Shi is Professor of International Relations and Director of Centre on
American Studies at Renmin University of China, severing also as a Counsellor of
the State Council of PRC. He has been Professor of International History at Nanjing
University, Professor of International Relations at International Relations Academy
in Nanjing, and Visiting Professor of Public Policy and of Modern China Studies for
teaching, respectively at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Aichi University
in Nagoya. He was also President of American Historical Research Association of China
from 1996 to 2002, and engaged in research with grants at Harvard University and
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His wrote and published 14 books include
The Global Challenges and China (2010); Thirty Studies on Strategy: Reflections of
China’s External Strategy (2008); History of Modern International Relations: From
the 16th Century to the End of the 20th (2006); International Politics and Statecraft
(2006); A Strategic Thinking on China-Japan Relations (2004); From Napoleon to the
Vietnam War: Lectures on Modern Strategy (2003); International Politics:
Theoretical Exploration, Historical Survey, and Strategic Thinking (2002); New
Trends, New Structure, and New Norms: the 20th Century’s World Politics (2000).
He also translated 14 books into Chinese, including Machiavelli's Art of War, A
History of Warfare (by John Keegan) (2010), Machiavellism (by Friedrich Meinecke)
(2008) and Makers of Modern Strategy (ed. by Peter Paret) (2006), and about 500
professional articles and essays in academic journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Many of his publications had wide influence in China and some were also influential
internationally.
Mainly based on strategic theory, political thinking, and the much wider historical
experiences through centuries, the fundamental principles of strategy in its broad
sense will be extracted, elaborated, and richly illustrated in the first part of
the course. These principles exist respectively in the following four major areas:
(1) the ends or objectives of strategy; (2) the relationship between ends and means,
together with the issues regarding various means and their basis of resources; (3)
the specially featured way of thinking and the artistic essence of strategy; and
(4) its policy-making mechanisms and qualities of strategic/political leadership.
Essentially, the making, improving, and execution of strategy depend on the creative
employment of the intellectual and emotional powers of the strategists in their
planning and action.
Taking the above as a grand start-point as well as an intellectual potential
framework, the second part of the course aims at helping the attending students to
develop a better grasp of China’s foreign policy and strategy in the contemporary
world politics and her foreign relations. The developments in the most recent years
and months will be emphasized, the current complexities and the future possibilities
will be discussed, and the various domestic impacts upon China’s foreign behavior
will be taken as a most important group of factors in analysis and understanding.
There is in the whole of the course a consistent theme and advocacy of grand strategy,
whether explicitly emphasized here or implicitly referred there, which has been
marked primarily by a really holistic approach, a sharp focus on the calculated
relationship between ends and means, a kind of constant concern with the
cost-effectiveness of different strategic options, and unrelenting creative
adaptation to the endlessly changing world.
I. The Principles of Strategy: An Introduction
II. National Fundamental Objectives Served by Grand Strategy
III. The Relationship between Ends and Means, with the Issues of Various Means and
Their Basis of Resources
IV. The Specially Featured Way of Thinking and Policy-making and the Artistic Essence
of
Strategy
V. China’s Foreign Policy: Domestic Dynamics and General Orientation
VI. The Complex Relations with U.S. and Issues of Taiwan, Tibet, and Military Rivalry
VII. The Surrounding Areas, especially Northeast East Asia, in China’s Policy and
Strategy
VIII. New Problems in a New Agenda, Global Multi-Dimensional Challenges, and China’
s
Strategy with Chineseness
Session I
LTC Goh Teck Seng, “Clausewitz and His Impact on Strategy”;
Edward Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D.
to the Third (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), pp. 1-5
(Introduction);
Review on The Grand Strategy of Philip II by Geoffrey Parker (Robin G. Macpherson);
Laura Secor, “Grand Old Policy,” The Boston Globe, February 8, 2004.
Session II
4 groups of miscellaneous readings (experts), mainly by authorities on politics &
strategy
Session III
4 groups of miscellaneous readings (experts), mainly by authorities on politics &
strategy
Session IV
3 groups of miscellaneous readings (experts), mainly by authorities on politics &
strategy
Session V
Shi Yinhong, “The Impact of China’s Transition on Foreign Policy,” in Christopher
A. McNally ed., China’s Emergent Political Economy (London and New York: Routledge,
2008);
Shi Yinhong, “The Roles China Ought to Play in the World,” GMF, Stockholm China
Forum, Paper Serious, June 2011;
David E. Sanger, “The Three Faces of New China,” The New York Times, September
25, 2010;
Alice L. Miller, “Institutionalization and the Changing Dynamics of Chinese
Leadership Politics,” in Cheng Li, China’s Changing Political Landscape (Washington,
D.C., Brookings Institution Press, 2008) (Excerpt);
David E. Sanger and Michael Wines, “China Leader’s Limits Come into Focus
as U.S. Visit Nears,” The New York Times, January 16, 2011;
Martin Fletcher, “The Chinese Dream Has Replaced America’s,” The Times, August
23, 2008;
Paul Mooney, “Internet Fans Chinese Nationalism,” The Korea Herald, April 6, 2005.
Session VI
Paul Kelly, “US Seeks New Path to China,” Australian, December 10, 2005;
Benjamin A. Shobert, “US-China: A Turn for the Worse,” Asia Times, February 6,
2007;
C. Fred Bergsten, “A Partnership of Equals: How Washington Should Respond to China’
s Economic Challenge,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008;
Shi Yinhong, “The Strategic Lessons and the Evolution of Approach: China’s
Management of the Taiwan Issue and Its American Element,” in Zheng Yongnian and
Raymond Ray-Kuo Wu, eds., Sources of Conflict and Cooperation in the Taiwan Strait
(Singapore: World Scientific, 2006);
“China, Taiwan Agree to Exchanges during Historic Talks,” Agence France Presse,
June 11, 2008;
Shi Yinhong, “The Truth Regarding Tibet: A Chinese Perspective,” The Washington
Post, August 8, 2009;
“China’s Naval Ambitions,” Editorial, The New York Times, January 1, 2011;
Elizabeth Bumiller, “U.S. Will Counter Chinese Arms Buildup,” The New York Times,
January 8, 2011.
Session VII
“Russia and China: When Dragons Dance with Bears,” The Economist, November 30,
2006;
Anand Giridharadas, “What Role for Emerging India as a U.S. Ally,” International
Herald Tribune, February 7, 2007;
Shi Yinhong, “The Need for A Composite Strategy in China-Japan Relations,”
in Gi-Wook Shin and Daniel C. Sneider, eds., Cross Currents: Regionalism and
Nationalism in Northeast Asia (Stanford, Calif.: APARC, 2007);
“East Asian Disputes Unresolved Despite Softer China Line,” Financial Times,
June 20, 2008;
Edward Wong, “China’s Disputes in Asia Buttress Influence of U.S.,” The
New York Times, September 22, 2010;
Shi Yinhong, “China’s Bizarre Political Relations with ROK and the History
Disputes,” a excerpt of idem, “China’s Strategy toward Northeast Asia and Her
Views on the United States,” in The Korea Journal of Security Affairs, V. 12, No.
1 (June 2007);
Shi Yinhong, “China and North Korea Nuclear Issue: Competing Interests and
Persistent Policy Dilemmas,” The Korea Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 21, No.
1 (March 2009);
Shi Yinhong, “New Games in Tightly Fixed Structures: North Korea's Desperate
Volatility and China's Cornered Strategy," The Korea Journal of Defense Analysis,
Vol. 23, No. 3 (September 2011) (Excerpt).