Study On Sino-US International Institutional Competition From The Perspective Of National Preference:Goals,Agendas And Action Tactics

Since entering the second decade of this century,the rhythm of strategic competition between China and the United States has become increasingly tense.Given the importance of the international institutions in the contemporary international society,the international institutional competition naturally becomes an important part of the strategic competition between China and the United States.In fact,the hegemony of the United States is actually an institutional hegemony,and the protection of its hegemonic position is the basic starting point for the United States to establish,maintain,resist and withdraw from some international institutions.With the goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects,China’s influence will expand along the international institutions.In this context,the international institutional competition between China and the United States has gradually emerged and deepened.Currently,the academic circles have responded to some hot issues concerning the international institutional competition between China and the United States.For example,why does the United States frequently "quit" and "build" groups? Are international institutions led by China,such as the AIIB,intended to challenge the US-dominated world order? The above questions are undoubtedly important,but a more comprehensive study of the international institutional competition between China and the United States is needed.In order to do more comprehensive and fundamental reflection and exploration on the international institutional competition between China and the United States,this paper attempts to construct a holistic analytical framework and develop the existing research from two aspects of research perspective and research content.On the research perspective,existing research try to discuss the international institutional competition between China and the United States from the perspective of power balance,role-identity and other aspects,among which there are also attempts to construct a comprehensive perspective.This paper argues that it is an appropriate way to understand the international institutional competition between China and the United States from the perspective of national preferences.The perspective of national preference is appropriate because,on the one hand,preferences can be used to better understand behavior.A country’s behavior is driven by its national preference.The internal and external environments that a country faces are complex.The stimuli in these internal and external environments first act on the national preference and then transmit to the national behavior.On the other hand,national preference is a complex and dynamic concept.The sources of national preference include material and conceptual,structural and unit factors.The eclecticism can coordinate and integrate various explanatory factors to the greatest extent,so as to better align with the international reality.Moreover,the dynamic changes of national preferences also reserve sufficient space for explaining the development and change of international institutional competitions.On the research content,this paper broadens the research scope of international institutional competition between China and United States.In terms of the understanding of the connotation of the international institutional competition between China and the United States,this paper argues that both "building groups" and "withdrawing from groups" belong to national action tactics and are international institutional competition in a narrow sense.There are two other categories of behavior that need to be further explored alongside action strategies,namely goal-setting and agenda-setting.These three categories are the broader and more fundamental concepts of international institutional competition.In fact,from goalestablishing to agenda-setting to tactic-selecting is an independent and interrelated sequence of actions.Since this paper advocates understanding behavior in terms of preferences,it is natural to bring the analysis of national preferences to the exploration of all competitive behaviors mentioned above.Apart from the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into five chapters.The main content of the first chapter is to build the analysis framework of Sino-US international institutional competition from the perspective of national preference.The research focus is to type the factors that influence national preference.The framework aims to make a more panoramic and dynamic presentation of Sino-US international institutional competition.The second chapter discusses the background and basic form of national preference in China and United States.The discussion of the formation background needs to clarify the history and current situation of Sino-US strategic relations and realize that the world structure is approaching polarization.Combined with the specific conditions of China and the United States and by analyzing the elements of typed preferences,this chapter attempts to outline national preferences of China and the United States and pave the way for the following three chapters.Chapter 3,Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 understand the international institutional competition between China and the United States in a broad sense from the perspective of national preferences,namely,goal-establishing,agenda-setting and tactic-selecting.The third chapter argues that the main goals pursued by China and the United States both include power,prestige,security and prosperity.The difference lies in the ranking of priority goals by the two countries under the guidance of their own preferences.Due to the characteristics of goals themselves and the differences in the ranking of goals between the two countries,the goals of the international system of China and the United States cannot be completely compatible.Chapter four focuses on agenda-setting,a hidden way to control the results of the international institutional competitions.In order to achieve their own goals,China and the United States tend to choose different agenda-setting methods under the shape of national preferences.The United States has more institutional privileges and is accustomed to using cliques forces to control the agenda and generalize the concept of security issues.China,for its part,practices genuine multilateralism in setting the agenda and focuses on achieving the common good.The fifth chapter puts the concrete action tactics of China and America in the international institutional competition at the core of the analysis.Whether the agenda is set or not affects the basic position of China and the United States towards the international institutions,and further catalyzes the international institutional competition and stimulates countries to take actions to adjust the international institutions.The international institutional competition between China and the United States can be simply divided into three types,namely intra-institutional,inter-institutional and extra-institutional competition.Different types correspond to different national action tactics.Under the influence of their respective preferences,China and the United States have different tendencies to choose action strategies in different types of international institutional competition.