The Rise of China in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing’s Alternative World Order
by Dawn C. Murphy
Stanford University Press, 2022
Geopolitical tensions between the United States and China are often framed in the context of competition in the Pacific region. Dawn Murphy contributes to the conversation with her fresh analysis, focusing on China’s efforts in Africa and the Middle East. She persuasively argues that China is building a sphere of influence in the region and increasingly competing with the United States and the West, challenging the rules of the liberal international order (p. 8). Beijing’s goal is to build an alternative order that could one day replace American hegemony. Murphy conceptualizes Chinese efforts in relation to U.S. efforts as cooperative or competitive categories of political, economic, and military action and provides a useful framework for conceptualizing whether such efforts are norm convergence or norm divergence in the liberal international order ( p.9).
in The Rise of China in the Southern HemisphereMurphy sheds light on topics that are increasingly relevant and discussed in academic and policy circles. rush city and Jean Ketian Similar attention is being focused on China’s efforts and global ambitions. While Doshi provides a broad view of China’s ambitions and Zhang provides a sophisticated understanding of specific foreign policy tools, Murphy’s contribution to this discussion provides a comprehensive overview of China’s foreign policy efforts in two important regions: Africa and Central Asia. Provides an intermediate comparative aspect. East.
Murphy’s book is an excellent primer for understanding China’s broader political, economic, and military efforts in both regions of interest. Each topic could be a book in itself, but the numerous, yet substantive research questions Murphy explores provide readers with an understanding of complex topics in a simple yet informative style. Each chapter is easily digestible and covers the main topics of her research in each area of focus. Murphy frames her comparison by assessing the geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States in each region. Of course, the Middle East is a region of mutual strategic interest between China and the United States. Africa is an area of interest for China but is often not a policy priority for the United States. Her description provides nuance to understand Beijing’s actions that defy terminology. revisionism This is often abused in policy analysis. Rather, her work focuses on a critical period of China’s development and influence from 1991 to 2019, showing gradual displacement over time.
Analyzing both regions requires significant time and financial resources that are not available to academics. Murphy’s lack of field work in Africa is therefore notable because it was limited to South Africa. To be fair, the strategic relationship between South Africa and China, with their deep historical, political and economic links, is worth studying to decide which country to choose. Although more field work is often beneficial, interviews and analysis of official documents compensate for these limitations. It is particularly instructive that she uses primary sources from China to amplify her own story. Although her work is largely qualitative, it would have been easy and useful for her to incorporate a multimethod approach in her research. For example, Murphy provides figures for China’s arms sales to the country, but no analysis highlights useful trends other than providing total values by period (p.227). Arms transfers are a particularly important foreign policy tool. That’s because China does not impose conditions on arms transfers like many Western countries do. Additionally, it would be beneficial to examine the topic of national debt. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is an important policy tool that has saddled the country with massive debt, but the implications of these concerns are not adequately discussed. Considerable ink has been spilled on the ‘debt diplomacy’ debate, and she has largely avoided the discussion altogether.
One of the book’s findings is that while China’s foreign policy efforts have a competitive nature in its economic and political actions in the Middle East and Africa, its military efforts have been largely cooperative. Perhaps she exaggerated the collaborative aspects of China’s military effort at the risk of painting a more dire picture. Two military efforts Murphy highlights are China’s support for UN peacekeeping operations and anti-piracy operations. A closer look at China’s incentives and participation in these efforts reveals that its actions are actually less cooperative and more competitive than portrayed. For example, China’s anti-piracy operations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are not part of a multinational effort in the region. Rather, China decided to operate independently (p.229). Even more significant is China’s support for UN peacekeeping efforts. in beijing military strategic science (2020), an official military strategy and planning document, sets out two notable objectives for China’s participation in UN peacekeeping missions. One goal is to improve bilateral relations with countries that send troops, and another goal is to generate good foreign investments for the future. The Chinese government stated in its own written statement that it views the deployment of UN troops as a means to improve relations and strengthen interests between the two countries. As Murphy points out, China’s UN presence reflects concerns about the potential impact on the country’s economic security (p. 221). Given the above considerations, China’s military actions can rightly be interpreted as competitive rather than cooperative, as Murphy argues.
Despite its limitations in assessing China’s military efforts, Murphy’s work makes an important and refreshing contribution to the literature depicting China’s global ambitions in two geopolitically sensitive regions. Eschewing the usual Pacific- and Euro-centric approach to studying the competitive rivalry between China and the United States, her contributions are as follows: The Rise of China in the Southern Hemisphere Fills gaps in existing literature. Moreover, this book will be useful for policymakers and scholars to understand the context in which this competition will occupy their work in the near future.
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