China’s increased presence within the UN and its peacekeeping missions shows its will to be a responsible actor, whilst shifting away from the China threat theory that has fed Western thought....Show moreChina’s increased presence within the UN and its peacekeeping missions shows its will to be a responsible actor, whilst shifting away from the China threat theory that has fed Western thought. However, little research has been done on how power is perceived within this field. The state claims to be non-interventionist but still sent an increasing amount of combat troops to Africa. It is unknown if the end goal is to provide aid or if there is more to it. This study intends to research what China’s model for peace and development within the mission of South Sudan entails, both theoretically and practically, and how it might use an underlying strategy of smart power. Herein, Nye’s concept of smart power is a way for a nation to maximise its strength through a combination of hard and soft power. In order to measure smart power, the components of military, economic, and affective and normative soft power were used. Military and economic power exist on as spectrum ranging from hard to soft power, whilst soft power is also devised into tangible and intangible assets. To research power, the thesis has used a variation of academic sources, databases, newspapers, and official governmental papers. These were chosen as to examine official reporting and factual outcomes. The results showed that the Chinese model for development contains soft power elements, whilst its activities in South Sudan employ both soft and hard power. The results therefore suggest that China might pursue a smart power strategy to safeguard its own interests. The realist concept of power still holds up today and might prove valuable to research more areas of power in UN missions on the African continent.Show less
The end of the Cold War marked the realisation that the global order is in a constant state of flux. The ultimate aim of this research was to assess ability of the most influential nation in the...Show moreThe end of the Cold War marked the realisation that the global order is in a constant state of flux. The ultimate aim of this research was to assess ability of the most influential nation in the world to navigate the changing world order in a way that precedes mutually beneficial international relations, using the interesting example of its tumultuous relationship with Southeast Asia. In order to approach such an overwhelming topic, the framework for this thesis draws upon the ideas of Samuel P. Huntington's expressed in his work The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking the World Order, and uses it to identify three areas where change has manifested itself most in the region since the early 1990s – religious diversity, rise of alternative powers and economic integration. The next step was to link the findings to the wider discussion on how shifting dynamics have given rise to the different power strategies. Using the conclusions from these findings, we can assert that, in the case of Southeast Asia, the US might have decided on the pivot of interest just in time. Indeed, it is very possible we could see more positive American presence in the future in the Asia-Pacific region in the form of ‘smart power’.Show less
