国际发展与中国
课程教师
Alvaro Mendez
教师简介
Professor Mèndez is the Director of the Global South Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Senior Associate Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He is Professor of China’s Diplomacy and the Global South at Sciences Po Paris and teaches China’s foreign policy at LSE with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. He also teaches at Fudan University in Shanghai, where he is Professor of China and International Development. He is an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and a Founding Member of the Colombian Council of Foreign Affairs. He is the Editor in Chief of The Handbook of International Relations Theory and the Global South. His research explores China’s global engagement, Latin American foreign policy, and the political economy of development. He is the author, co-author, or editor of several books, including The China Latin America Axis, New Development Assistance, The Political Economy of China Latin America Relations, and China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics. Prof. Mendez has held the status of Foreign Expert at Fudan University, awarded by the People’s Republic of China, since 2022 and has published widely in leading academic journals.
课程内容
This course focuses on China’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and how China is leveraging its preponderance of material power in pursuit of global leadership through the implementation of ‘development as grand strategy’ that places special focus on developing regions. China's economic position, coupled to an astute use of finances flowing from its neo-mercantilist policies, has enabled it to become the leading trading partner and a significant investor in the developing world (or Global South). Moreover, through the onset of the BRI, the Global South is increasingly figuring in Beijing's expanding security interests and soft power provisions. Understanding how dynamics in this relationship are impacting upon a host of global and contemporary issues (BRICs, multilateralism, peacekeeping, the environment) is crucial to the shape of the 21st century. Students will acquire a deeper appreciation of the concept of agency linked to the varied response of countries and regional organizations to the BRI from policy elites to local communities in the rest of the world, to China’s growing structural power, as well as placing Chinese engagement within the context of other ‘traditional’ and emerging powers.
Learning Outcomes (optional)
Demonstrate an understanding of why and how China initiates its international development initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative in pursuit of global leadershipb.
Describe the benefits and challenges associated with China’s international development effortsc.
Identify and explain how China’s international development influences other countries on key global issues such as the environment and peacekeepingd.
Explore and reflect on the roles played by various actors from policy elites to local communities in China’s international development and how they contribute to development outcomese.
Analyze China’s international development using empirical case studies
课程安排
Lecture | Topic (2.5 teaching hours) |
1 | China’s Rise and Development as Grand Strategy |
2 | China’s Economic Development Model and the Belt and Road Initiative |
3 | China and Central Asia |
4 | China and Africa |
5 | China and the Middle East |
6 | China and Southeast Asia |
7 | China and Latin America |
8 | China and International Organizations |
9 | China’s BRI – implications for relations with the US and the EU |
10 | China’s International Development and the Future of Global Order |
Reading list (sample)
Hu, W. (2019). Xi Jinping’s “Major Country Diplomacy”: The Role of Leadership in Foreign Policy Transformation. Journal of Contemporary China, 28(115), 1–14.
Norris, W. (2016). Chinese Economic Statecraft: Commercial Actors, Grand Strategy and State Control. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, Chapters 2–3.
Mendez, A. (2023). Russia’s Backyard: China and Central Asia after the Invasion of Ukraine. In The Great Power Competition, Volume 5. Springer.
Alden, C. (2007). China in Africa. London: Zed Books.
Kamel, M. (2018). China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Implications for the Middle East. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 31(1), 76–95.
Gong, X. (2019). The Belt and Road Initiative and China’s Influence in Southeast Asia. Pacific Review, 32(4), 635–665.
Alden, C., & Mendez, A. (2023). China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics. London: Bloomsbury.
Chin, G. (2012). Two-Way Socialization: China, the World Bank and Hegemonic Weakening. Brown Journal of International Affairs, XIX(1), 211–230.
Li, Y., & He, Z. G. (2022). The Remaking of China–Europe Relations in the New Era of US–China Antagonism. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 27(3), 439–455.
Lin, J. Y., & Wang, M. (2025). China and the Global South: A Strategic Partnership for Development. Forum for Development Studies, 52(2), 335–359.
Student Assessment
In-class participation (30%)
Final Essay (70%)
