Worlds Apart? Order-making in the Age of US-China Rivalry

11th Annual International ADI Conference | 18-19 June 2019

Asian Dynamics Initiative, University of Copenhagen
South Campus, Njalsgade 120, 2300 Copenhagen S

Conveners: Peter Marcus Kristensen, Dept. of Political Science, and Andreas Bøje Forsby, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen

After decades of largely cooperative bilateral relations, the US and China have become embroiled in a widening number of conflicts that increasingly look like a prelude to a comprehensive strategic Cold War-like rivalry. This burgeoning Sino-US rivalry comes amid widespread turmoil surrounding the future of the so-called US-led liberal international order and the launch of several order-building initiatives by China, most prominently the Belt and Road Initiative. It raises a number of pertinent questions about how the emerging rivalry will affect practices of international cooperation and order-making at various levels.

Welcoming theory-guided research within International Relations (IR) as well as other disciplinary traditions, this panel invites contributions on a broad range of topics related to the changing strategic conditions of international relations in the age of US-China rivalry. These topics include, among others, international trade (e.g. the WTO crisis), maritime order (e.g. the South China Sea), disarmament (e.g. the nuclear weapons programs of Iran and North Korea), climate change (e.g. the Paris agreement) and technological development (e.g. China’s 2025 plan). Apart from such issue areas, the panel also invites contributions on (1) the different sets of visions and grand strategies that motivate and shape US and Chinese foreign policy at the current juncture of international relations; and (2) the different strategies pursued by “secondary states” as they navigate the emerging great power rivalry.

Download abstracts here (pdf)

19 June Room 22.0.49
13:15-15:15	Niki Sopanen, University of Helsinki Crouching (paper) tiger, hidden (paper) dragon, and the clash of the conspiratorial turn? A post-foundational inquiry into foreign political conspiracy theory discourses in Sino-U.S. relations since the events of Tiananmen
	Wu Zhengyu, School of International Studies, Renmin, University of China 'A Grand Deal to Offer? China's New Foreign Policy, Sino-US Relations and the Asia-Pacific'
	Gregory J. Moore, School of International Studies, University of Nottingham, China Containment is in the Eyes of the Beholder: The US Indo-Pacific Strategy and Chinese Perceptions Thereof
15:15-15:30	Break
Room 22.0.49
15:30-17:30	Bowen Yu, Dept. of Political Science, University of Toronto, and Fei Long, Shanghai International Studies University The “Reform and Opening-Up Playbook”: Reform Philosophy and China’s Approach to Global Governance Reform
	Rikard Jalkebro and Catherine Jones, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews Cooperation in a context of animosity: Peacekeeping, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster relief in East Asia (HADR)
	Tor Dahl-Erikson, Dept. for Social Sciences, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø R2P and a more Asia-dominated world order University of Tromsø – Norway’s Arctic University
	Xiao Alvin Yang, Political Science, University of Kassel Theorizing Sino-American Relations: A Critical Social Evolutionary Theory