Status, Security, and Socialization: Explaining Change in China's Compliance in International Institutions

My research considers why and how China complies with international norms in multilateral security regimes and the scope conditions under which it is more or less likely to take on self-constraining commitments. It builds upon and moves beyond the existing literature on socialization processes by examining why status concerns are important motivations for socialization dynamics. I identify three scope conditions under which Chinese decision-makers' exposure to global norms and engagement with foreign counterparts have evolved and ranged from strategic adaptation to an understanding that cooperative, multilateral security is a preferred source of state security, and they include: the quality of the deliberations and observable social interactions at international and regional organizations and at bilateral and multilateral fora; the context and novelty of the normative concept discussed; and the degree to which international consensus, particularly among developed and developing countries, is forged on a normative agenda. As a plausibility test, the theory is assessed in three empirical case studies of China's evolving behavior in such issue areas of foreign and security policy as: (1) UN peacekeeping operations; (2) conventional arms and export controls; and (3) sensitive negotiations over disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea. The implications of my research are two-fold. First, I make a stronger theoretical linkage between status concerns and socialization processes to explain variations in Chinese foreign policy. I test the scope conditions for socialization that unpack the micro-processes and causal pathways to determine how, why, and when decision-makers in status-seeking states like China are more or less open to preference change. Refining this theoretical argument articulates the contributions of my research for Chinese foreign policy studies and international relations theory more broadly. And second, the analytical, empirical, and policy lessons drawn from my research shed important insights into what has worked in the past, what has not, and what is likely to work in the future in drawing China closer to assuming the role of a responsible, major power in East Asia and in global politics.