We assume that the ideas, interests and strategies of regional powers are highly significant variables, with the power to influence foreign policy. Yet while comparative research projects involving OECD-countries are fairly common, comparative research integrating developing regions is still rare, despite the fact that these countries are among the key actors of the twenty-first century. This collection emphasizes the role of regional powers in intra-regional, interregional and global contexts, analyzing the rise of regional powers from a comparative perspective. In so doing, the book explains how these powers have power to shape regional and global politics.

China, Japan and Regional Leadership in East Asia is a compilation which provides a necessary and welcome update to the Asian regionalism debates of the last decade, bringing together notable experts in Asian area studies and comparative foreign policy to provide many new insights. . . essential reading both for practitioners of Asian studies and those concerned with the role of comparative regionalism in modern international relations. Marc Lanteigne, East Asia An International Quarterly . . . this book is strongly recommended reading for everyone interested in Japan China relations, leadership, and East Asia. It proves that looking at complex issues from a variety of angles does bring a much deeper understanding. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Marie Söderberg, Journal of Japanese Studies This book addresses one of the most intriguing but also under-researched issues of the future of the Asian strategic landscape: who will lead the region and replace US leadership, Japan and China, and what kind of leadership do we have to expect? The authors come to the conclusion that it is a matrix or combination of leadership options rather than a single leadership type, depending on issue domains, governance structure and geospatial scales. . . The conclusions by Christopher Dent admirably draw the theoretical and empirical issues together. Reinhard Drifte, Pacific Affairs This book considers themes, evidence and ideas relating to the prospects for regional leadership in East Asia, with particular reference to China and Japan assuming regional leader actor roles. Key issues discussed by the list of distinguished contributors include: the extent to which there is an East Asian region to lead China Japan relations different aspects of Japan and China s positions in the East Asia region how the seemingly inexorable rise of China is being addressed within the region how China and Japan have explored paths of regional leadership through certain regional and multilateral organisations and frameworks the position of certain intermediary powers (i.e. the United States and Korea) with regards to regional leadership diplomacy in East Asia. Invaluably, the concluding chapter brings together the main findings of the book and presents new analytical approaches for studying the nature of, and prospects for leadership in East Asia. China, Japan and Regional Leadership in East Asia will be essential reading for upper level undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers of international relations, regional studies, international political economy and economics as well as Asian and development studies.

A leading foreign policy thinker uses Chinese political theory to explain why some powers rise as others decline and what this means for the international order Why has China grown increasingly important in the world arena while lagging behind the United States and its allies across certain sectors? Using the lens of classical Chinese political theory, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers explains China’s expanding influence by presenting a moral-realist theory that attributes the rise and fall of great powers to political leadership. Yan Xuetong shows that the stronger a rising state’s political leadership, the more likely it is to displace a prevailing state in the international system. Yan shows how rising states like China transform the international order by reshaping power distribution and norms, and he considers America’s relative decline in international stature even as its economy, education system, military, political institutions, and technology hold steady. Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers offers a provocative, alternative perspective on the changing dominance of states.

Political leadership styles in East Asian states are shaped and influenced by a number of domestic factors. These factors include the type of political system that an East Asian state adopted from their days of independence and decolonization. There is a diverse array of political systems in the region, ranging from Western-style liberal democracies like Japan and South Korea to autocratic one-party states like North Korea. Most other East Asian countries adopt systems somewhere in between these two polar ends. This volume begins with a macro-political perspective of leadership. It then looks at case studies of political leadership and the factors that influence the shape and outcome of leadership styles in the region.The book also examines the concept of community leadership and its impact on community well-being. Several specific case studies are examined in depth. While examining political leadership from a macro theoretical and empirical perspective, the book also adopts historical-anthropological perspectives to analyse case studies. The case studies also examine policy formulation and implementation to look at the role of government in handling community-level issues.Finally, the book focuses on economic leadership in international political economy and global business.

We assume that the ideas, interests and strategies of regional powers are highly significant variables, with the power to influence foreign policy. Yet while comparative research projects involving OECD-countries are fairly common, comparative research integrating developing regions is still rare, despite the fact that these countries are among the key actors of the twenty-first century. This collection emphasizes the role of regional powers in intra-regional, interregional and global contexts, analyzing the rise of regional powers from a comparative perspective. In so doing, the book explains how these powers have power to shape regional and global politics.

This book presents a systematic collation of the regional and global dimensions of the leadership role of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It analyses the rising regional and global leadership of BRICS, using specific benchmarks to gauge the nature of this leadership. The elements examined include willingness to lead, the capacity to do as much, and the degree to which the given actor is accepted as a leader both within and beyond its region. The chapters in the book capture the nature of trends in regional and global leadership within the contexts of a changing international order. It is taken for granted that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are now engineering a unique pool of governance that is seeking alternatives to the current order of global economic and political affairs. The fact that these countries have jointly decided to forge ahead with the BRICS constellation of states that is now taking consequential decisions such as the creation of the BRICS’ New Development Bank, is not to be treated lightly. In this book the majority of papers take a step back and systematically analyse the real state of the leadership that is provided by the BRICS on a litany of regionally and globally relevant issues. While no one doubts the fact that these countries have the capacity to provide leadership especially in their various regions on many issues, what remains moot is whether they are willing and capable to do so at the global level. Even in those cases where there is the willingness and capacity, the book argues that the acceptance of such leadership by potential followers is not always a given.

This book explores the effects and consequences of major global power and major regional power status attribution on the foreign policies of states striving for such status and the consequences of status differentiation for the international system and the post-Cold War international order.