A Study On The Feasibility Of China’s "Alliance Strategy"

As a common political phenomenon in human history, alliance and coalition politics have been playedmagnificently on the stage of history for thousands of years. Fundamentally speaking, the alliance theory isborn out of the theory of―balance of power‖, known as one of the most relevant thoughts of Realism. Inthe perspectives of scholars represented by Stephen Walt, however, states intend to form alliances in orderto balance the threats rather than other features, and it makes the―theory of balance of threat‖quiteconvincing in explaining the origins of alliances. In addition to external threats, the strategic culture,historical memory and policy traditions rooted deeply in a state, along with the background andinternational circumstance that the state is living in, do have great impact on its view of alliance and helpsignificantly in building on its attitude towards whether alliance is needed and could be formed or not. Asthere are voices calling for China to build up its own alliances in order to address the external threats(especially U.S. Rebalancing‘strategy and its Asia-Pacific alliance system), this thesis attempts to analyzethe feasibility of China‘s―Alliance Strategy‖from the three angles of strategic culture, threat assessing andworld trends. Based on this analysis, this thesis also tries to bring up two major kinds of―alternativestrategies‖known as―partnership relationship‖and―New Model of Major Power Relationship‖. All ofthese mentioned disccusions are prepared for exploring the way for China to make friends widely in newera and form an external environment in favor of China‘s own security and development.