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The rise of economic pragmatism in Caribbean states’ relations with China (2005-2015)
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Emmanuel, Kim (2019) The rise of economic pragmatism in Caribbean states’ relations with China (2005-2015). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3474425~S15
Abstract
While the existing scholarship has focused on China's rise within developing states of the Americas hemisphere, less obvious in the narrative are the perspectives of Latin America or Caribbean states in relations with China. Within the Sino- Latin American literature, much of the discourse has been preoccupied with China’s motives and the US and China nexus within the region, while also largely omitting Caribbean states in the discussions. These underlying deficiencies in the literature point to critical missing links in the discourse on China’s rise in the region. Thus, highlighting substantial knowledge gaps in the Sino-Latin America Caribbean literature. The thesis aims to analyse Caribbean states relations with China.
The thesis specifically interrogates the extent to which the Caribbean region’s geopolitical structure, policymaking, economic considerations and perceptions have influenced the region’s foreign policy towards China. It examines how and why this confluence of political and economic factors are key to explaining the patterns of continuity and change in Caribbean states relations with China. It also concomitantly emphasises the primacy of particular variables in influencing the region’s relationship with China. The evaluation is undertaken primarily from the standpoint of Caribbean states. Investigating relations from the vantage point of secondary states provide a means of advancing knowledge beyond the more established, yet invariably narrow conceptualisations of China’s rise in the region. In doing so, valid and reliable assessments of China’s relations with the region can also emerge.
The thesis argues that Caribbean states have formulated relatively autonomous spaces for foreign policy decision-making regarding China based on economic interests, whilst simultaneously acting within the broader construct of a specific systemic environment relating to the US role in the region, and embedded perceptions of the region’s evolving ties with China. The thesis explores this overarching argument through the lens of Neo-Classical Realism theory and Foreign Policy Analysis. These conceptual frameworks combined, emphasise the salience of structural, ideational, and domestic variables in shaping foreign policy behavior. The research proposes a multi-causal yet targeted approach to evaluating the Caribbean region’s relationship with China. Thus, unit level economic issues are considered critical to unpacking Caribbean states relations with China in the Post-Cold War period (2005-2015).
In examining the economic processes of engagement, the thesis focuses on two empirically based case studies; financing for infrastructure investments and trade. Through these two economic pathways, the study assesses the impacts of the economic engagement, the implications of the evolving commercial ties for the US role inside the region and Caribbean states responses to the domestic economic engagement. In doing so, Caribbean states interests, agency, constraints and the underlying ambiguities in the relationship are highlighted. The study makes both empirical and theoretical contributions to the literature on Sino- Latin America Caribbean relations. More specifically, the research contributes to a rethinking of established assumptions regarding the Latin America Caribbean region’s relations with China.
The study illuminates a more sustained Caribbean and China relationship through distinct phases of the engagement. It shows that Caribbean states displayed even in the midst of Cold War rivalries, a commitment to China on the basis of Third World solidarity. Caribbean states then reconfigured their ties with China on the basis of mutual economic interests in the Post-Cold War period. Such issues are still largely under-explored in the literature. The thesis also contributes to providing a developing country perspective within a discourse that has been largely China-facing. Further, the study adds to the growing body of scholarly work on NCR for understanding the foreign policy behaviour of developing states. The research also contributes to creating additional lines of enquiry into the Sino-Latin America Caribbean dynamic, thereby providing further avenues for research. More broadly, the study contributes to the wider International Relations literature and its inter-related sub-fields of Foreign Policy and International Political Economy.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | China -- Economic aspects, China -- Foreign economic relations, International economic relations, China -- Foreign relations -- Caribbean Area, Caribbean Area -- Foreign relations -- China | ||||
Official Date: | 12 August 2019 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Breslin, Shaun ; Sinclair, Timothy J. | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xiii, 326 leaves : charts, maps | ||||
Language: | eng |
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