Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 10-5-2016 Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters Lukas K. Danner Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC001184 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Defense and Security Studies Commons, and the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Danner, Lukas K., "Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3050. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3050 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida EXPLAINING CHINA’S CONTRADICTORY GRAND STRATEGY: WHY LEGITIMACY MATTERS A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS by Lukas Karl Danner 2016 To: Dean John F. Stack, Jr. choose the name of dean of your college/school Green School of International and Public Affairs choose the name of your college/school This dissertation, written by Lukas Karl Danner, and entitled Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ John F. Clark _______________________________________ Jin Zeng _______________________________________ Lidu Yi _______________________________________ Félix E. Martín, Major Professor Date of Defense: October 5, 2016 The dissertation of Lukas Karl Danner is approved. _______________________________________ choose the name of dean of your college/school Dean John F. Stack, Jr. choose the name of your college/school Green School of International and Public Affairs _______________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2016 ii © Copyright 2016 by Lukas Karl Danner All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION To my parents, Doris and Karl-Gerd, and my beloved wife, Shiran iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could not have accomplished this dissertation without the help of several institutions and individuals. First, I would like to thank the Department of Politics and International Relations of the Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University for the generous funding throughout the years with a teaching assistantship. Research was funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation European Association for Chinese Studies Library Travel Grant (2014) and the Anita and Morris Broad Research Fellowship (2014-15, 2015-16). This research was undertaken at the Bavarian State Library and the Library of the Institute for Sinology at Ludwig- Maximilians-University of Munich. I am very thankful for the help of the staff at both libraries, especially Renate Stephan-Bahle, Thomas Tabery, Andrea Kreuzpointer, and Marc Nürnberger. Further development of my dissertation was also supported by presentations at academic conferences which were generously funded by the F. A. Hayek Fund for Scholars of the Institute for Humane Studies, the Graduate and Professional Student Committee, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, the American Association for Chinese Studies, the International Studies Association, and the Nottingham Confucius Institute. Funding during the writing stage was liberally provided by the Humane Studies Fellowship of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University (2015-16) and a Tuition Waiver (Fall 2015 and Spring 2016) and Dissertation Year Fellowship of the University Graduate School at Florida International University (Summer and Fall 2016). v In my endeavor to write this dissertation, I am indebted to many scholars and colleagues who helped me along the way, first and foremost my dissertation committee. I would like to thank the participants of the panels of the conferences in which I was given the opportunity to present some chapters of my dissertation in their nascent and advanced stages, such as the East Asia Security Symposium and Conference (EASSC) in Beijing, 2013, the International Studies Association Annual Meetings in Toronto, New Orleans and Atlanta, 2014-2016, the American Association for Chinese Studies Annual Meeting in Atlanta, New Brunswick and Houston, 2012, 2013 and 2015, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Conference in Montréal, 2015, and the Joint East Asian Conference at Nottingham University and the Soft Power Conference at Westminster University, 2013. Special thanks go to Jonathan Ping and Brett McCormick who organized the EASSC in Beijing, Regina Heller and Simon Koschut who organized the panel at ECPR, as well as the discussants from the conference panels, especially Edward Friedman, Gil Murciano, Kei Koga, Murray A. Rubinstein, Jerome T. Sibayan, Naomi Standen, and Shogo Suzuki, and helpful comments from the audience, especially from Thomas Colley, Elizabeth Dahl, Lowell Dittmer, June Teufel Dreyer, Elisabeth Forster, Ajaya Kumar Das, Ning Liao, John Mowchan, Ji Hye Shin, Tracy Steele, Vincent Wang, and Thomas Wilkins. At FIU, special thanks go to UGS Associate Director Magnolia E. Hernández, Assistant Vice Provost Sonja Montas-Hunter, and former Graduate School Dean Lakshmi N. Reddi for advancing my professional development within the AGILE program. I am very grateful to Susanne Zwingel for all the support I received from her as the International Relations Graduate Program Director. I would like to thank Markus Thiel, Paul Kowert, and Erin Kimball Damman for their general help and instruction with my vi dissertation’s research design. A conversation with Ronald W. Cox has sparked my interest in what was to become my eventual dissertation topic. I thank Lidu Yi for pushing me to achieve greater rigor in the research process. Jin Zeng was invaluably helpful with the refinement of the research design and case selection and was always available for my concerns. I sincerely thank John F. Clark for his unwavering support and insightful suggestions for revisions, as well as challenging theoretical questions to address with this dissertation. Most of all, I am hugely indebted to my dissertation chair, advisor, and mentor, Félix E. Martín who was determining in giving me direction in developing the topic and underlying theory, as well as the research design; he was always available for my questions and concerns and provided much needed confidence in the research and writing process. I look back on conversations with him which lasted many hours—often beyond regular working hours. Despite having had even more support than I could have ever anticipated, the remaining errors, deficiencies and limitations of this dissertation are solely my own. Last but not least, my thanks go to my friends who were supportive throughout my time writing the dissertation, especially Bibek Chand, Yuanyuan Fang, Maria Gabryszewska, and Nicolás Terradas. I could not have achieved what I did without the support of my family, especially my parents, Doris and Karl-Gerd, my siblings, Veronika and Laura, my grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins. Without having received the parenting and education prior to my university studies, my doctorate could not have been possible, which is thanks to my parents who keep on supporting me to this day. Most of all, I am forever indebted to my loving wife and best friend, Shiran, who was patient during the strenuous research and writing process, and always had my back. vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION EXPLAINING CHINA’S CONTRADICTORY GRAND STRATEGY: WHY LEGITIMACY MATTERS by Lukas Karl Danner Florida International University, 2016 Miami, Florida Professor Félix E. Martín, Major Professor This dissertation analyzed the internal incoherence of China’s grand strategy. To do so, it used the cultural driver of honor to explain the contradictory behavior of China, which ranges from peaceful, responsible international actor to assertive, revisionist rising power with hegemonic ambitions. The central research question asked why China often diverges from Peaceful Development, thus leading to major contradictions as well as possible misperceptions on the part of other nations. Honor was the standard of reference that was utilized and examined in order to establish congruence and coherence between deed and praxis. Accordingly, the first hypothesis of this study posited that if policy diverges from or is incongruent with China’s standard of national honor, then the grand strategy is internally incoherent. Second, two further hypotheses posited that China will tend to use peaceful means if its goal is to enhance external legitimacy, whereas it will tend to use assertive means if its goal is to enhance internal legitimacy. This dissertation began by broadly tracing the cultural driver of honor and the link