Videos by Jeremy A . Garlick
Late last year China sealed a high profile investment deal with the European Union. Now its focus... more Late last year China sealed a high profile investment deal with the European Union. Now its focus is turning to Central and Eastern European nations. Beijing is pushing for a summit with a group of leaders this month. But how strong is China’s reach in CEE? 6 views
Books by Jeremy A . Garlick
Cambridge Elements, 2025
This Element applies insights from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, a... more This Element applies insights from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and archaeogenetics to contemporary IR. Among such insights are the evolutionary role of emotions, intra- and intergroup dynamics, and status hierarchies, as well as the evolved function of morality and language as group-binding mechanisms. Understanding these aspects of our evolutionary history and psychology is essential if scholars are to build a firmer scientific and evidential foundation for the study of international phenomena than has hitherto been achieved through the deductive application of IR theories.
Bloomsbury Academic, 2024
The influence of the People's Republic of China on world affairs is increasingly keenly felt: in ... more The influence of the People's Republic of China on world affairs is increasingly keenly felt: in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America and in Europe and North America too. But what are the reasons for China's rise and how can the West adapt? Advantage China explores these essential questions and the political, economic and cultural factors behind the answers. From the economic and demographic pressures of China's domestic economy to the expanding economic influence of the Belt and Road Initiative, Jeremy Garlick looks beyond Western misperceptions of China's rise to argue for new approaches to the international political order, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Routledge, 2022
There has been a great deal of speculation and prognostication about the China-Pakistan Economic ... more There has been a great deal of speculation and prognostication about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The project's name suggests it is intended to be an 'economic corridor' connecting Pakistan overland with China's Xinjiang province. This book examines whether CPEC's primary purpose is as an overland conduit for trade and economic cooperation between China and Pakistan. The key finding is that aims related to regional geopolitics and internal security have, in reality, a more significant impact. The book demonstrates that China's goals in Pakistan are primarily geopolitical rather than geo-economic, since the notion of constructing an economic and transportation 'corridor' between Pakistan and China is logistically and economically problematic due to a range of foreseeable problems. Most importantly, border disputes with India and the containment of domestic separatism motivate are the driving forces for cooperation between the partners. This book will be of interest to scholars who research the BRI, as well as policy makers.
Routledge, Rethinking Asia and International Relations, 2019
This book merges macro- and micro-level analysis of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to dissect... more This book merges macro- and micro-level analysis of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to dissect China’s aim in creating an integrated Eurasian continent through this single mega-project.
BRI has been the source of much interest and confusion as established frameworks of analysis seek to understand China’s intentions behind the policy. China’s international activity in the early 21st century has not yet been successfully theorized by IR scholars because of a failure to satisfactorily encompass its complexity. In addition, the mix-and-match syncretism of the Chinese approach to foreign policy has been under-emphasized or omitted in many analyses. Bringing together complexity thinking and analytic eclecticism to assess the degree to which this scheme can transform international relations, Garlick critically examines this large-scale interconnectivity project and its potential impacts.
The book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of international relations and China studies including academics, policy-makers and diplomats around the world.
Peer-reviewed papers by Jeremy A . Garlick
Orient, 2025
As it does in other regions, China’s approach to the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) is radic... more As it does in other regions, China’s approach to the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) is radically different to that of the United States. Whereas the U.S. focuses on security issues and military interventions, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) avoids becoming involved in regional geopolitics and instead builds relations with MENA countries through investments and trade under the broad umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI). This economics-led approach, accompanied by a form of diplomacy
based on the Chinese concept of guanxi (personal ties) centred around building relationships with leaders and elites in individual countries persuades many countries that China’s long-term mantra of political non-interference is meant sincerely despite doubts about its legitimacy on the part of some observers.
Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2024
Since the 1980s, a widely held view within the scholarly literature has been that China’s politic... more Since the 1980s, a widely held view within the scholarly literature has been that China’s political system is characterised by ‘fragmented authoritarianism’ (FA). According to the FA model, the central government’s power is limited by competing interests among a diversity of actors within the Chinese state. These actors include central government ministries and bureaucracies, local governments, and corporations, which bargain for influence over policy direction, leading to incoherence and inconsistency in decision-making. In this paper, we aim to demonstrate that the FA framework is misleading in the realm of foreign policy, especially in the era of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In its place, we characterise China’s decision-making and policy implementation system as flexible authoritarianism. Although actors such as corporations and local governments have a considerable degree of autonomy, they are responsible primarily for policy implementation, to which they can make adjustments within a set of broadly defined boundaries. Long-term strategic goals defined by the Party leadership are combined with elements of neoliberal free-market economics and applied with a remarkable degree of consistency. We illustrate the argument through evidence and case studies from Chinese foreign policy during the BRI era.
The Pacific Review, 2023
China's influence in the global South has both material and ideational aspects. In the era of the... more China's influence in the global South has both material and ideational aspects. In the era of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), material aspects include trade in goods, infrastructure-building, and imports of raw materials and energy. Ideational aspects include political influence and attempts to diffuse Chinese norms, some of which differ from those enshrined in the so-called 'liberal international order'. This paper posits that China's norm diffusion in the global South is attempted via practice-based normative diplomacy which includes both discursive and non-discursive practices. In theory, Chinese norms are supposed to be co-constituted by partners in a process we call 'earning recognition'. In practice, the Chinese government expects partner countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to model their behaviour and discourse on the example set by the People's Republic of China (PRC) without significant contestation. Our analysis demonstrates that the PRC's normative diplomacy has achieved a degree of earned recognition and influence, in that actors in the global South have begun to alter their behaviour along the normative lines expected by Beijing rather than those enshrined in the Western-led liberal international order. However, Chinese discursive practices have not met with the same degree of recognition as non-discursive ones, leaving space for counter-initiatives from the Western powers.
Europe-Asia Studies, 2023
Normative power China (NPC) has characteristics distinct from Manners’ conception of normative po... more Normative power China (NPC) has characteristics distinct from Manners’ conception of normative power
Europe (NPE). While NPE attempts to establish rules for interaction, NPC introduces practices to be
co-constituted via regional platforms through a process of ‘earned recognition’. In Central and Eastern
Europe (CEE), NPC’s regionalising ‘group cooperation diplomacy’ has taken the form of the ‘16/17 + 1’
cooperation framework. Using normative power theory, the article assesses, via a critical discourse
analysis of speeches and interviews, how and why China’s attempts to shape practices, earn recognition
and create a community of practice in CEE have met with—at best—only limited success.
Journal of Contemporary China, 2023
Chinese and European scholarly debates on China’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)... more Chinese and European scholarly debates on China’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have steadily heated up since the introduction of the 16/17 + 1 cooperation mechanism in 2012. However, they have tended to take place in discrete linguistic and academic bubbles. This article has three aims: first, to introduce Chinese scholarly debates on China-CEE cooperation to an Anglophone readership; second, to conduct a critical assessment of Chinese and European scholars’ inclusions and omissions; and third, to compare the narratives presented by Chinese scholars concerning China-CEE cooperation with European scholars’ interpretations. The content analysis demonstrates that Chinese scholars under-emphasize the influence-forming and ideational aspects of the platform, while European scholars insufficiently analyze the extent to which the 16/17 + 1ʹs characteristics are shared with other Chinese regional cooperation platforms.
All Azimuth, 2021
In recent years, the "relational turn" in International Relations (IR) theory has attracted exten... more In recent years, the "relational turn" in International Relations (IR) theory has attracted extensive attention. However, the limitations of the substantialist ontology of mainstream (Western) IR theory means that it encounters difficulties and dilemmas in interpreting the evolving international system. Against the background of the rapid development of globalization and regional integration, the reality of world politics is constantly changing, and increasingly shows obvious characteristics of interconnection and high interdependence. In this context, there is insufficient research comparing the Western and non-Western versions of the "relational turn". Relational ontology may be able to provide a bridge between Chinese Confucian philosophy, Western philosophy, Western sociology, and mainstream western IR theories capable of generating productive synergies. However, there are major theoretical and cultural obstacles to be overcome if a reconciliation of the Western and Chinese versions of relationalism is to be achieved.
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2020
In order to frame the analysis of the BRI’s regional implementation, this special issue draws on ... more In order to frame the analysis of the BRI’s regional implementation, this special issue draws on Freeman’s (2018) conception of China’s “regionalism foreign policy” and Zhou and Esteban (2018) “regional multi-lateral cooperation.” Freeman interprets the BRI as a “comprehensive approach to regional security whereby it seeks to engage [a] region through multiple vectors […] as part of an overarching security strategy to advance China’s power and influence” (Freeman, 2018: 92). Similarly, Zhou and Esteban (2018: 488) see China’s focus on regions via the BRI as
a multifaceted grand strategy […] promoting China’s soft power and building its role as a normative power through the promotion of alternative ideas and norms, and reshaping global governance in a way that reflects China’s values, interests and status.
They point to the need to eclectically combine theoretical insights from realism, liberalism, and constructivism to analyse the complex material, ideational, and institutional factors that have are being generated by the emerging BRI (cf. Tang, 2013). This issue follows their lead in understanding that it is not possible to encompass China’s multi-faceted approach to the BRI using only one theoretical or methodological approach; it is instead necessary to take an eclectic approach, which at the same time sets out to frame the initiative in a coherent, integrated fashion as far as possible.
Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2020
In the Belt and Road era, one would expect an increase in the amount of Chinese economic engageme... more In the Belt and Road era, one would expect an increase in the amount of Chinese economic engagement with Iran due to its strategic position on the Persian Gulf and its rich oil reserves. Yet by 2020 a committed programme of large-scale investment comparable to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had not materialised in Iran. The article uses an analytically eclectic framework to examine the record of Chinese economic activity in Iran since the advent of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. The empirical analysis demonstrates that China uses a strategically hedged approach to economic engagement in the Persian Gulf incorporating ideational as well as material elements. Ideational elements include the BRI’s intentional geographical “fuzziness” which enables it to act as a loose “policy envelope” for China’s evolving foreign policy needs. Through its hedged approach, China aims to open up local markets to Chinese commercial actors and secure diversified oil supplies. At the same time, Beijing aims to soft balance against US regional hegemony while avoiding the appearance of a challenge to the regional status quo. China also hedges by attempting to maintain solid relations with as many regional actors as possible, including most importantly Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, from whom China is receiving ever higher imports of oil. Data reveal that Chinese economic engagement with Iran has increased in the BRI era, but at a slower rate than in some other BRI partner countries and not at the expense of its relations with Saudi Arabia.
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2020
The Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is a key partner in China’s Belt, and Road Initiat... more The Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is a key partner in China’s Belt, and Road Initiative (BRI), since it comprises the majority of territories which the BRI’s overland route, the Silk Road Economic Belt, needs to traverse as it crosses Central Asia on the way to Europe. The goal of this article is to explore the BRI in the context of BRI–EAEU coordination. The first part of the analysis focusses on the ways the Eurasian Economic Commission delineates the “Greater Eurasian Partnership” and counterposes it against China and the BRI. Then, the article compares two sets of interpretations of the BRI and “Greater Eurasian Partnership” obtained from interviews with elites in Kazakhstan and Russia. The interviews indicate that the BRI has had a much more
forceful impact on local elites than Russia’s idea of “Greater Eurasian Partnership.”
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2020
Drawing on the literature on strategic hedging and adapting it to China's use of economic diploma... more Drawing on the literature on strategic hedging and adapting it to China's use of economic diplomacy in the service of comprehensive national security goals within the regionalised foreign policy approach of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we examine China's approach to securing and expanding its interests in the Persian Gulf. To implement the trade and infrastructure connectivity goals of the BRI and to secure the continued flow of diversified energy supplies, China needs to boost relations with both regional powerhouses, Iran and Saudi Arabia, without alienating either of them or the regional hegemon, the United States. The resulting strategy of strategic hedging is based in the Chinese approach to economic diplomacy, which utilises Chinese commercial actors in the service of national strategic objectives. Relations require careful and ongoing management if China is to achieve outcomes which benefit all sides while avoiding becoming entangled in the region's intractable geopolitical problems.
Asia Europe Journal, 2019
Although it appears that China's state capitalism model means that it utilises Chinese companies ... more Although it appears that China's state capitalism model means that it utilises Chinese companies in the service of foreign policy, the reality is more complex. The Beijing government is not always able to control the behaviour of its commercial actors as it seeks to implement an investment-led comprehensive national security strategy within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The article examines China's economic statecraft in the Czech Republic from 2015 to 2018, focusing on the extent to which the Chinese government was able to control the activity of the private company CEFC China Energy as part of a coordinated strategy of economic statecraft designed to increase Chinese influence in Central Europe via the use of economic carrots. CEFC was at the forefront of Chinese investments in the Czech Republic during the period but its investments were taken over in May 2018 by CITIC, a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) while the head of CEFC was under arrest in China. The case implies that Beijing lacked or lost control over its primary commercial actor in the Czech Republic and was forced to reassert its influence with the aim of getting its strategy of increasing its political and economic influence in the heart of Europe back on track. Since the case study reveals an attempt to use of a commercial actor in the service of Chinese national interests, it has implications for understanding Chinese economic statecraft in the remainder of the CEE region and other BRI countries.
Europe-Asia Studies, 2019
Since China launched the 16+1 forum for meetings with the heads of state of Central and Eastern E... more Since China launched the 16+1 forum for meetings with the heads of state of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in 2012, European observers have been struggling to make sense of the Chinese approach. Jonathan Holslag’s assertion that China is pursuing a policy of ‘offensive mercantilism’ in Europe and elsewhere offers an innovative theoretical framework which may be able to facilitate understanding of China’s economic diplomacy in CEE. The paper will therefore apply Holslag’s framework to an analysis of China’s activity in CEE since 2012 with a view to assessing the extent to which offensive mercantilism can explain China’s strategy.
Journal of Contemporary China, 2018
Intense interest in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was stimulated when $46 billion o... more Intense interest in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was stimulated when $46 billion of investment agreements were signed in April 2015, a sum which two years later increased to $62 billion. A major focus of CPEC is on developing overland transportation and pipeline links from the port of Gwadar to the Chinese province of Xinjiang as a land-based alternative to the maritime ‘chokepoint’ of the Straits of Malacca. This article assesses the viability of pipelines connecting China to the Indian Ocean through Pakistan via a close analysis of evidence obtained from both primary and secondary sources. It concludes that the overland connection is beset with difficulties because of geographical, economic and security problems, and that China’s long-term motivations for maintaining a presence in Pakistan are likely to be chiefly geopolitical rather than geo-economic. In fact, China’s primary aim with CPEC and other investments is to hedge against India by establishing a physical presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), a strategy which is herein referred to as geo-positional balancing.
Issues & Studies, 2017
In 2012 China and the European Union (EU) issued a joint declaration on energy security. It is un... more In 2012 China and the European Union (EU) issued a joint declaration on energy security. It is unclear, however, what progress has been made since then in terms of applying the goals of the declaration. This article sets out to assess the present state of China and the EU's energy security, the potential for future cooperation, and the obstacles which stand in the way. The analysis assesses the extent to which the two actors can work together on improving energy infrastructure, diversifying supplies, and developing renewable and nuclear energy, possibly by finding synergies between China's Belt and Road initiative and the EU's Juncker Plan. It also includes a re-examination of the concept of energy security to take account of the urgency of addressing the collapse of the global environment. Overall, the analysis suggests that although due to geographical and other constraints there may be limited opportunity for cooperation between the EU and China on securing oil and gas supplies, there is both scope and a pressing need for joint action in the field of renewable energy.
China Report, 2017
China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative is a grand plan to connect Asia, Europe and East A... more China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative is a grand plan to connect Asia, Europe and East Africa economically. However, from India’s point of view China’s attempt at what it describes as geo-economic expansion appears a geopolitical threat because of China’s activity in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This essay assesses the extent to which OBOR is (i) realistic and achievable, (ii) a genuine threat to India, and (iii) amenable to possible Indian involvement. It concludes that India should continue to be wary of its neighbour in national security terms, but has no option but to cooperate with China economically by participating in OBOR if it seriously wishes to increase economic growth and bring the ‘Make in India’ and Sagarmala projects to fruition. In particular, India should seriously consider allowing Chinese companies to develop one or more Indian ports with associated infrastructure and manufacturing.
China Report, Nov 2016
China's rise to the status of a global power is a very complex phenomenon. Yet students of intern... more China's rise to the status of a global power is a very complex phenomenon. Yet students of international relations (IR) are taught that a good theory should be 'parsimonious', meaning that it should explain a lot with a little. In relation to China's rise, the problem with theoretical parsimony may be not what it includes but what it leaves out. This article argues that lack of explanatory breadth and depth in connection with China's IRs demonstrates a shortcoming in mainstream IR theories such as neorealism, offensive realism and constructivism. A candidate for an IR theory which explains more with more is complexity theory (CT), which utilises a conceptual toolkit including non-linearity, feedback effects, emergent properties and complex adaptive systems. CT's toolkit, already used in the natural sciences, seems a good candidate to explain the hard-to-predict phenomena that emerge in the international sphere, but has not yet been developed into a clear theoretical lens in IR. In this article, the rise of China is analysed through the lenses of three mainstream theories and CT in order to assess the strengths and shortcomings of each approach and to suggest how CT's 'conceptual toolkit' might be utilised to flesh out existing IR theories in order to explain China's rise more fully.
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Videos by Jeremy A . Garlick
Books by Jeremy A . Garlick
BRI has been the source of much interest and confusion as established frameworks of analysis seek to understand China’s intentions behind the policy. China’s international activity in the early 21st century has not yet been successfully theorized by IR scholars because of a failure to satisfactorily encompass its complexity. In addition, the mix-and-match syncretism of the Chinese approach to foreign policy has been under-emphasized or omitted in many analyses. Bringing together complexity thinking and analytic eclecticism to assess the degree to which this scheme can transform international relations, Garlick critically examines this large-scale interconnectivity project and its potential impacts.
The book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of international relations and China studies including academics, policy-makers and diplomats around the world.
Peer-reviewed papers by Jeremy A . Garlick
Africa (MENA) is radically different to that of the United States. Whereas the U.S. focuses on security issues and military interventions, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) avoids becoming involved in regional geopolitics and instead builds relations with MENA countries through investments and trade under the broad umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI). This economics-led approach, accompanied by a form of diplomacy
based on the Chinese concept of guanxi (personal ties) centred around building relationships with leaders and elites in individual countries persuades many countries that China’s long-term mantra of political non-interference is meant sincerely despite doubts about its legitimacy on the part of some observers.
Europe (NPE). While NPE attempts to establish rules for interaction, NPC introduces practices to be
co-constituted via regional platforms through a process of ‘earned recognition’. In Central and Eastern
Europe (CEE), NPC’s regionalising ‘group cooperation diplomacy’ has taken the form of the ‘16/17 + 1’
cooperation framework. Using normative power theory, the article assesses, via a critical discourse
analysis of speeches and interviews, how and why China’s attempts to shape practices, earn recognition
and create a community of practice in CEE have met with—at best—only limited success.
a multifaceted grand strategy […] promoting China’s soft power and building its role as a normative power through the promotion of alternative ideas and norms, and reshaping global governance in a way that reflects China’s values, interests and status.
They point to the need to eclectically combine theoretical insights from realism, liberalism, and constructivism to analyse the complex material, ideational, and institutional factors that have are being generated by the emerging BRI (cf. Tang, 2013). This issue follows their lead in understanding that it is not possible to encompass China’s multi-faceted approach to the BRI using only one theoretical or methodological approach; it is instead necessary to take an eclectic approach, which at the same time sets out to frame the initiative in a coherent, integrated fashion as far as possible.
forceful impact on local elites than Russia’s idea of “Greater Eurasian Partnership.”