Political Science. Question solving Essay Example

Question One:

Soft Power in China

Introduction

China is increasingly making use of the soft power approach. This country primarily utilizes soft power as a foreign policy tool, and it uses it to evaluate the political, economic, and strategic implications regarding their relationships with the United States. This section will evaluate the meaning of soft power and what will constitute a soft power for China as it seeks to balance its relationships with America.

Soft power means the ability to co-opt and attracting as opposed to utilizing force or coercion to achieve a given purpose (Paradise, 2009). One of the primary characteristics of soft power is that it is not coercive; it constitutes various political values, culture, as well as foreign policies (Paradise, 2009). Currently, the concept of soft power has also been widely utilized to change and influence both the public and social opinion through apparently less transparent channels as well as lobbying with the interventions of both political and non-political firms. This practice and concept of soft power are increasingly being preferred and utilized by China with the aim of helping it to demonstrate the commitment that it has in ‘rising peacefully’ (Glaser & Murphy, 2009).

China is evidently knowledgeable that the U.S has a significant influence in the world. Following this, through the utilization of soft power, China can be in a better position to understand the way America has managed to sustain its global superpower role for such a long time (Zeitoun, Mirumachi & Warner, 2011). The Chinese soft power can then constitute some foreign policy approaches which emulate those foreign American policies which will then enable them to deflect some of the concerns that the U.S has regarding the rising power of China (Parmar & Cox, 2010). At the same time, this strategy of emulating the American foreign policy approaches will also emphasize the message that China is undertaking a ‘peaceful development.’ In doing this, China’s utilization of soft power will constitute of foreign policies that are similar to those of the United States and therefore, it will balance its relationship with that of the United States as it is on its way up to being a powerful country.

Conclusion

Soft power is a concept that emphasizes on non-coercion. China is increasingly embracing this approach as it rises to power. China’s soft power will need to constitute foreign policy approaches that are similar to those of the United States which will deflect the focus of America on China’s rise and will also balance the relationship between the two countries.

Question Three:

Strategy of Containing China’s Rise

Introduction

It is evident that the United States is not comfortable with the way and the rate that China is rising. Therefore, it has always strived to find ways of engaging with China to contain its rise going to war is an option. The section will, therefore, discuss the strategy that the United States can engage to contain China’s rise aside from resulting in war.

The United States will be required to identify a new strategy which will contain China’s rise as opposed to assisting it to continue ascending to power. This new strategy will be to include some of the vital changes to their current policy which will limit the potential dangers that military expansion, disruptive diplomacy, and the geo-economics coercion of China may present to the interests that America has in Asia as well as in the world (Mearsheimer, 2010). Making these changes in their current policy as a containment strategy for China will need among various other things revitalization of the American economy. Doing this will nurture the disruptive innovations which bestow on America some of the economic advantages. This will then significantly increase the defense budget and therefore shift the defense resources of America to Asia (Nye Jr, 2010). Consequently, this move will create some new preferential trading arrangements among the friends and allies of the United States and in the process enhance their mutual gains by instruments which exclude China consciously.

Another strategy would be to recreate the technology-control regime which will involve the allies of the United States and at the same time bar China from obtaining strategic and military capabilities (Kaplan, 2010). The containment strategy deliberately entails elements which limit the capacity of China to misuse the growing power that it possesses even when America, as well as its allies, continues to have interactions with China economically and diplomatically (Glaser, 2011). It is evident that China represents and will continue to represent the major competition to America for many years ahead.

Conclusion

China is rapidly rising to power such that it is posing a significant threat to the United States as being among the superpower countries in the world. Following this threat, America has tried to develop ways in which they can engage China and contain its rapid rise to power. In doing this, America could make some crucial and significant changes to its current policy that locks out China to progress technologically and economically while at the same continue to interact with them.

Question Five:

Russia’s Resurgence and the European Union

Introduction

Both the fall and rise of power is a rather common phenomenon which is typically experienced in the political world. This power is usually described regarding its economy, military strength, as well as the political influence. Over the last ten years, Russia began re-asserting itself even after facing political, economic, geographical limitations, as well as global problems (Larrabee, 2010). This resurgence has presented various opportunities and challenges for the European Union (EU) which are what the section will evaluate.

Opportunities

One of the main challenges that EU has always faced is developing a comprehensive security and foreign policy (Paasi, 2009). With Russia rising as a powerful country and a significant say so accompanied by sufficient resources, the EU can try and amend relations with Russia so that they can come in handy when it comes to the implementation of these policies (Paasi, 2009). This will then raise the confidence of the EU states on its capability of policy formulation and implementation.

Challenges

The relationship between Russia and the European Union is proving to be very complicated and predictably will continue being complex because Russia has severally attempted to ignore that the European Union exists. This was evident because Russia is dealing with the individual European Union countries (Aggarwal & Govella, 2011). Precisely, currently, the nature of the relations with the Russian government has persistently been a divisive topic of contention and discussion within EU. Following the fact that EU was ignoring Russia during its downfall, its resurgence is making some other communist countries like Estonia and Poland to criticize the EU partners because they downplayed the importance of what is perceived to be a coercive Russian policy towards its neighbors in Europe (Stegen, 2011).

When evaluating the relationship between EU and Russia, it is critical to emphasize that in the security and foreign policy, the EU does not have the ability of just speaking with a single voice which then means that is still a collection of other sovereign countries and more so the larger ones. Taking this into consideration, Russia has and is continuing to be on its way to being a powerful again, its input in the union will be paramount, therefore, if the current relations is anything to go by, the EU is bound to experience problems especially when it comes to making political and economic policies (Larrabee, 2010).

Conclusion

After a long time when Russia was facing challenges economically, politically, and global problems, it is steadily rising to become powerful just like it was years back. This has presented some opportunities and challenges to EU which have been discussed in the section.

References

Aggarwal, V. K., & Govella, K. (Eds.). (2011). Responding to a resurgent Russia: Russian policy and responses from the European Union and the United States. Springer Science & Business Media.

Glaser, B. S., & Murphy, M. E. (2009). Soft power with Chinese characteristics: The ongoing debate. Chinese soft power and its implications for the United States: Competition and cooperation in the developing world, 10-26.

Glaser, C. (2011). Will China’s rise lead to war? Why realism does not mean pessimism. Foreign Affairs, 80-91.

Kaplan, R. D. (2010). The geography of Chinese power: how far can Beijing reach on land and at sea?. Foreign Affairs, 22-41.

Larrabee, F. S. (2010). Russia, Ukraine, and Central Europe: the return of geopolitics. Journal of international affairs, 63(2): 33-52.

Mearsheimer, J. J. (2010). The gathering storm: China’s challenge to US power in Asia. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 3(4): 381-396.

Nye Jr, J. S. (2010). The Futures of American Power-Dominance and Decline in Perspective. Foreign Aff., 89: 2-7.

Paasi, A. (2009). The resurgence of the ‘region’and ‘regional identity’: Theoretical perspectives and empirical observations on regional dynamics in Europe. Review of international studies, 35(S1), 121-146.

Paradise, J. F. (2009). China and International Harmony: The Role of Confucius Institutes in Bolstering Beijing9s Soft Power. Asian survey, 49(4): 647-669.

Parmar, I., & Cox, M. (Eds.). (2010). Soft power and US foreign policy: theoretical, historical and contemporary perspectives. London: Routledge.

Stegen, K. S. (2011). Deconstructing the “energy weapon”: Russia’s threat to Europe as case study. Energy Policy, 39(10): 6505-6513.

Zeitoun, M., Mirumachi, N., & Warner, J. (2011). Transboundary water interaction II: the influence of ‘soft’power. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 11(2): 159-178.