The doctoral dissertation examines the contemporary research agenda on the rise of great powers within the field of International Relations (IR). Specifically, it analyzes the development and structure of scholarship on China's ascent as a major power, focusing on the theoretical, methodological, and normative orientations that have shaped this field between 1978 and 2019. Instead of studying China as an empirical phenomenon, the dissertation investigates how the academic community constructs and interprets its rise. This is achieved through the method of reflective reading and manual analysis of 761 of the most-cited scholarly articles on the subject.
The latter empirical part of the study relies on systematic manual categorization of these articles, organizing and visualizing the data to identify thematic, methodological, and theoretical trends in research on China's rise. Next, dissertation conducts a systematic deconstruction of the underlying research assumptions in this field. By applying Guzzini’s four modes of understanding, it identifies, analyzes, and visualizes the empirical, meta-theoretical, constitutive, and normative assumptions that have shaped the research agenda on China’s ascent over different time periods.
The findings reveal that over time, liberalism, realism, and constructivism have alternated as dominant theoretical perspectives in explaining China’s rise. However, in the past decade, interdisciplinary approaches and new methodological practices have become more prominent. Despite this shift, the number of quantitative studies remains relatively low, indicating that most research relies on recurring secondary data, leaving significant room for further exploration.
While political and media discourse frequently frames China's rise as a threat, this perspective remains marginal in academic literature. The most influential scholarly works predominantly adopt a normative orientation toward peace rather than conflict, with the exception of the period between 2000 and 2005, when a pessimistic turn in China research coincided with broader global concerns about the future of multilateralism and economic liberalization.
Additionally, the study provides fresh insights into the epistemological boundaries of China-related IR research. Despite the increasing complexity of the field, Western conceptual and theoretical frameworks continue to dominate. The dissertation contributes to a broader reflection on knowledge production in IR and lays the groundwork for further research into the pluralization of theoretical and methodological approaches in the study of great powers.
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