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Cultural Realism : Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History / Alastair Iain Johnston.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Princeton Studies in International History and Politics ; 178Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©1995Description: 1 online resource (328 p.) : 1 map 27 line illus. 9 tablesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691213149
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 951/.02 22
LOC classification:
  • DS753 .J64 1995eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES -- PREFACE -- Chapter One -- Chapter Two -- Chapter Three -- Chapter Four -- Chapter Five -- Chapter Six -- Chapter Seven -- Chapter Eight -- APPENDIX A. CODING PROCEDURES -- APPENDIX B. TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE LEGITIMATE ACTIONS DIRECTED AT AN ADVERSARY -- APPENDIX B. TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE OUTCOMES OF ACTIONS AGAINST AN ADVERSARY1 -- APPENDIX C. Map of Northern Border Areas in the Ming Period -- REFERENCES -- INDEX
Summary: Cultural Realism is an in-depth study of premodern Chinese strategic thought that has important implications for contemporary international relations theory. In applying a Western theoretical debate to China, Iain Johnston advances rigorous procedures for testing for the existence and influence of "strategic culture." Johnston sets out to answer two empirical questions. Is there a substantively consistent and temporally persistent Chinese strategic culture? If so, to what extent has it influenced China's approaches to security? The focus of his study is the Ming dynasty's grand strategy against the Mongols (1368-1644). First Johnston examines ancient military texts as sources of Chinese strategic culture, using cognitive mapping, symbolic analysis and congruence tests to determine whether there is a consistent grand strategic preference ranking across texts that constitutes a single strategic culture. Then he applies similar techniques to determine the effect of the strategic culture on the strategic preferences of the Ming decision makers. Finally, he assesses the effect of these preferences on Ming policies towards the Mongol "threat." The findings of this book challenge dominant interpretations of traditional Chinese strategic thought. They suggest also that the roots of realpolitik are ideational and not predominantly structural. The results lead to the surprising conclusion that there may be, in fact, fewer cross-national differences in strategic culture than proponents of the "strategic culture" approach think.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780691213149

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES -- PREFACE -- Chapter One -- Chapter Two -- Chapter Three -- Chapter Four -- Chapter Five -- Chapter Six -- Chapter Seven -- Chapter Eight -- APPENDIX A. CODING PROCEDURES -- APPENDIX B. TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE LEGITIMATE ACTIONS DIRECTED AT AN ADVERSARY -- APPENDIX B. TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE OUTCOMES OF ACTIONS AGAINST AN ADVERSARY1 -- APPENDIX C. Map of Northern Border Areas in the Ming Period -- REFERENCES -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Cultural Realism is an in-depth study of premodern Chinese strategic thought that has important implications for contemporary international relations theory. In applying a Western theoretical debate to China, Iain Johnston advances rigorous procedures for testing for the existence and influence of "strategic culture." Johnston sets out to answer two empirical questions. Is there a substantively consistent and temporally persistent Chinese strategic culture? If so, to what extent has it influenced China's approaches to security? The focus of his study is the Ming dynasty's grand strategy against the Mongols (1368-1644). First Johnston examines ancient military texts as sources of Chinese strategic culture, using cognitive mapping, symbolic analysis and congruence tests to determine whether there is a consistent grand strategic preference ranking across texts that constitutes a single strategic culture. Then he applies similar techniques to determine the effect of the strategic culture on the strategic preferences of the Ming decision makers. Finally, he assesses the effect of these preferences on Ming policies towards the Mongol "threat." The findings of this book challenge dominant interpretations of traditional Chinese strategic thought. They suggest also that the roots of realpolitik are ideational and not predominantly structural. The results lead to the surprising conclusion that there may be, in fact, fewer cross-national differences in strategic culture than proponents of the "strategic culture" approach think.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)