• DOI:10.1080/10357718.2010.489993
• Corpus ID: 143841239

The new ‘Pacific Century’ and the rise of China: an international relations perspective

@article{Wilkins2010TheN,
  title={The new ‘Pacific Century’ and the rise of China: an international relations perspective},
  author={Thomas Stow Wilkins},
  journal={Australian Journal of International Affairs},
  year={2010},
  volume={64},
  pages={381 - 405}
}

• T. Wilkins
• Published 16 July 2010
• Political Science
• Australian Journal of International Affairs

The re-emergence of the ‘Pacific Century’, or ‘Asia-Pacific Century’, discourse centred on the rise of Chinese power raises important questions in the discipline of international relations (IR). These questions relate to the conceptualisation of the Pacific Century discourse, its application to the contemporary empirical case, and its relationship and amenability to IR theories. In order to address these questions, the article subjects the concept of a ‘Pacific Century’ to critical analysis through the synergy of three pertinent ‘debates’. First, it creates a novel analytical framework to define and codify the parameters of the Pacific Century debate; a discourse that has until now remained diffuse and inchoate. Second, it engages with the present ‘great debate’ in IR between the traditional/rationalist and critical/reflectivist approaches, applying them in juxtaposition to the notion of a ‘new’ Pacific Century, led by China. Thirdly, then, the article speaks to the ‘rising China’ debate, which currently captivates commentators both in academic and policy-making circles. The article explores how the ‘Pacific Century’ concept is a compound of both ideational and material factors: it is at once both a political/ideological project and a reified intellectual frame of reference. Through this multidimensional analysis, the article aims to shape the re-emerging debate on the Pacific Century, affirm the enduring value of the term, and demonstrate the efficacy of IR theories in deconstructing conceptual problems.