Introduction

Abstract

This collection developed from a workshop held at Ghent University, Belgium on 28–29 March 2013 entitled ‘China’s Rise: Geopolitical Developments and Their Consequences for Global Stability’, funded by the U4 University Network (Gent, Groningen, Göttingen, and Uppsala). In an effort to provide a more complete interpretation of ‘China’s Rise’ than was presented at the workshop, this volume includes additional contributions from scholars who did not attend. The titles of both the Ghent workshop and of this volume were obviously inspired by China’s post-1970s economic and political growth — in China itself recently coined ’China’s Revival’ (fuxing), after a period in which this development had been called ‘Peaceful Rise’ (heping jueqi) and ‘Peaceful Development’ (heping fazhan) — and the question of what impact China’s increasing clout in global politics may have.