The Logic of a Great Nation's Growth (An International Political Sociology Analysis of Western Great Power Rise)

Author: Guo Shuyong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: This book adopts new theories and perspectives from international political sociology, taking the relationship between state growth and the international community as its starting point. It examines variables such as ordered development, legitimate war, and great power image to reinterpret the historical patterns of successful rise among Western powers like France, Britain, Russia, and the United States since the Thirty Years' War. It goes beyond Paul Kennedy's methods and conclusions in observing the rise and fall of great powers, supplements Joseph Nye's recent soft power theory, and proposes the proposition that great power growth is the unity of material and social growth. The book offers unique and detailed elaborations on key issues such as soft power, great power image, the contrast between Germany and Japan's rise, and the mystery of U.S. growth. It also provides strategic insights for growing great powers and is a specialized academic monograph in China that uses international political sociology to study the strategy of great power rise.