Contingent States: Greater China and Transnational Relations

Abstract

In the 1990s, Greater China became the subject of debate as the site of either the danger of the "China threat" or the promise of Confucian capitalism. William A. Callahan argues that Greater China presents challenges not only to economic and political order but also to international relations theory. In fact, Greater China, though absent from geopolitical maps and international law, exemplifies the contingent state of international politics. Callahan deconstructs the mainstream understandings of Greater China, tracing its emergence through four political "problems" in East Asia: the South China Sea disputes, Sino-Korean relations, the return of Hong Kong, and cross-straits relations. Contingent States reveals how each of the "problems" provoked theoretical innovations that depart from standard conceptions of sovereignty, democracy, and the nation-state.