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Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics (Paperback)) (Paperback)
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Short Description for Cultural RealismSets 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? This work focuses on the Ming dynasty's grand strategy against the Mongols (1368-1644).
Full description- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Published: 27 July 1998
- Format: Paperback 322 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Cultural Studies | Political Science & Theory | International Relations | Asian History | Early History: C 500 To C 1450/1500 | Modern History To 20th Century: C 1700 To C 1900
- ISBN 13: 9780691002392 ISBN 10: 0691002398
- Sales rank: 251,445
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Full description for Cultural Realism
"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.
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