THOUGHT GAMES ABOUT CHINA

[...]this is an awkward review to write. Yet in extending their findings to the current era, none of these books examine Chinese interests, perceptions, goals, identity, history, religion, culture, and philosophy—or even capabilities, domestic politics, or its economy—in any depth. If identity, culture, and ideas, or even the domestic politics and business of a country, have even a marginal impact on the behavior and perceptions of actors in international politics—and a wide swath of the IR profession, along with MacDonald and Parent, Goddard, and Schake, clearly believes that they do—then we cannot expect the books under review to tell us much about China and power transitions. Shifrinson argues that structural reasons determine the strategy a rising power takes, such as the distribution of power, geography and political relationship, and the declining state's own military tools (p. 3).