Recognized Strategy

This dissertation is the study of the recognition issue in international relations. In international relations study, the recognition issue does not receive attention it deserves. The explanation of the recognition issue exists in the field of international law, closely associated with international relations study. Nevertheless, the international law focuses mainly on the procedures of state recognition and their explanation. This dissertation expands appropriately the application range and regards the demands for recognition as an important driving force of a state's foreign policy. The patterns of recognition in the international relations are state recognition, recognition of qualifications/memberships of a state in the international organizations, and the political recognition of the specific nation's development path. This paper argues that the recognition theory of the political philosophy can be regarded as a research basis of the studies on recognition in the international relations, but we need the appropriate limitations and adjustments of the recognition theory. To this end, this paper, on the basis of the legitimacy (political audience cost) and the interpretation of anarchy in international relations theory, implements the integration between the recognition theory and international relations research. On this basis, the paper analyzes the strategies of recognition. In order to obtain the state's recognition, the recognition of qualifications/memberships of a state in the international organizations, and the political recognition of the specific nation's development path form other international actors, the passive states to be recognized mainly adopt the strategies such as establishing fait accompli, differentiation, redemption / atonement and capturing the power of initiative; the active states to recognize others mainly adopt the strategies such as non-recognition, recognition with the attached conditions and building the image of"other".Cases in this paper are derived from more than 60 years of diplomatic practice since the founding of New China. The main cases we choose are the practice of state recognition since the founding of New China and the struggling history of restoration of China's lawful seat in the United Nations. The recognition of international relations is divided into three advanced process, from state recognition, recognition of qualifications/memberships of a state in the international organizations, to the political recognition of the specific nation's development path. The sociality of the international community and political legitimacy are the core political motivity of the demand for recognition. On the one hand, China's further integration into the international community strengthens the demand for recognition. On the other hand, state image in China's foreign policies in Third World countries or regions has also been challenged.The main purposes of this dissertation are: First, using the relatively mature recognition theory in political philosophy to analyze the recognition phenomenon in international relations, break through confined system of recognition research in the field of international law, and reveal political considering behind the recognition practice in international relations; second, summing up experience by examining China's recognition practice at micro-and macro-analysis two levels. At the micro level, the dissertation examines the China's state recognition, the restoration of China's lawful seat and China's response to all kinds of "China threat theory"; at the macro level, by means of the perspective of micro-history, it focus on the change of China's world view at the ideological sense.