Middle Powers and the Rise of China

by Bruce Gilley (Editor), Andrew O'Neil (Editor)

This is the first work to examine the importance and role of middle powers in the key phenomenon of contemporary international politics, the rise of China. Middle powers have capabilities immediately below those of great powers yet exercise influence far above most other states in global trade and as allies or adversaries in regional security, arms proliferation, and global governance. This book reviews China's middle-power relations with South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, and Brazil. Contributors address how these diverse nations are responding to a rising China, the impact of Chinese power on each, and whether these states are being attracted to China or deterred by its new power and assertiveness. The book also explores how much (or how little) China, and for comparison the US, value middle powers and examines whether or not middle powers can actually shape China's behavior.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 8, 2014

About the author

Bruce Gilley is Professor of Political Science at the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. His research centers on comparative and international politics and public policy. His work covers issues as diverse as democracy, climate change, political legitimacy, and international conflict. He is a specialist on the politics of China and Asia. He is the author of four university-press books, including The Nature of Asian Politics (2015), The Right to Rule: How States Win and Lose Legitimacy (2009) and China’s Democratic Future (2004) in addition to several co-edited volumes. His scholarly articles have appeared in journals including Comparative Political Studies and the European Journal of Political Research and his policy articles in journals including Foreign Affairs and the Washington Quarterly. A member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Democracy and the Journal of Contemporary China, Gilley has received grants from the Smith-Richardson Foundation and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. He was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University from 1989 to 1991 and a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Princeton University from 2004 to 2006. From 1992 to 2002, he was a journalist in Hong Kong where he wrote for the Eastern Express newspaper and then the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine.His biggest scoop was exposing an illicit technology transfer by a Stanford professor to China's military.

Dr. Gilley is the Principal of Policy Foresight Associates LLC, a Portland-based firm providing research and strategy advice on public policies and programs for clients in the United States and abroad. He is chapter president of the Oregon Association of Scholars, the state chapter of the National Association of Scholars and member of the Heterodox Academy. He is founding signatory of the Oregon Academic Faculty Pledge on Freedom.