Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-Building in China-Africa Relations - Softcover

Benabdallah, Lina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472054546 ISBN 13: 9780472054541

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2020

Synopsis

China’s rise to power is one of the biggest questions in International Relations theory (IRT) and foreign policy circles. Although power has been a core concept of IRT for a long time, the faces and mechanisms of power as it relates to Chinese foreign policymaking has changed the contours of that debate. The rise of China and other powers across the global political arena sparks a new visibility for different kinds of encounters between states, particularly between China and other Global South states. These encounters are more visible to IR scholars because of the increasing influence that rising powers have in the international system. This book shows that foreign policy encounters between rising powers and Global South states do not necessarily exhibit the same logics, behaviors, or investment strategies of Euro-American hegemons. Instead, they have distinctive features that require new theoretical frameworks for analysis. Shaping the Future of Power probes the types of power mechanisms that build, diffuse, and project China’s power in Africa. One must take into account the processes of knowledge production, social capital formation, and skills transfers that Chinese foreign policy directs toward African states to fully understand China’s power-building mechanisms. The relational power framework requires these elements to capture both the material aspects and ideational people-centered aspects to power. By examining China’s investments in human resource development programs for Africa, the book reveals a vital, yet undertheorized, aspect of China’s foreign policy making.

About this title

About the Author

Lina Benabdallah is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University.

From the Back Cover

"Shaping the Future of Power is essential reading for anyone interested in not only Sino-Africa relations, but also how power is wielded in international relations. Benabdallah asks big important questions about how China exercises power in Africa, drawing on extensive and rich empirical data."

--Haley J. Swedlund, Radboud University Nijmegen, author of The Development Dance: How Donors and Recipients Negotiate the Delivery of Foreign Aid, Cornell Press 2017.

"Shaping the Future of Power makes a significant contribution to our understanding of China-Africa relations. Based on considerable empirical research leavened by sharply drawn analysis, Benabdallah provides a rich account of the development of elite networks, knowledge production and their expression as--to paraphrase Xi Jinping--'a new kind of power relationship.' She tackles all of this against the backdrop of challenging conventional International Relations approaches to interpretation of China-Africa/Africa China ties and, concurrently, going beyond the simple nostrums of 'agency' to unpack the role of social networks and ideational constructs, examining how these both shape the relationship and our study of it."

--Chris Alden, The London School of Economics and Political Science.

"Benabdallah's power-knowledge approach--meaning China's use of knowledge production and human-to-human relations to build influence in Africa--is a great framework for understanding China-Africa relations. Her framework and deep case study analysis will be of interest to students and scholars across fields, but will be an essential read for scholars and students of international relations."

--Kim Yi Dionne, University of California at Riverside

"Shaping the Future of Power reminds us that the expansion of international society necessarily affects (international) knowledge. Lina Benabdallah demonstrates that the rise of China brings into focus 'different kinds of encounters between states, particularly between China and other Global South states, particularly Africa' that challenge disciplinary commonsense. As a result, theorists and other analysts would need new tools--methods and modes of inquiry and analysis--to grasp the changing nature of power brought about by the rise of China. China-Africa is a good empirical candidate for such an endeavor as its foundations augur distinct logics of power. Brilliant!"

--Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui, Cornell University

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472054546
• ISBN 13: 9780472054541
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 204