Logic of Growth in Great Powers: 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 the 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, the United Kingdom, 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 the growth of great powers is the unity of material growth and social growth. The book provides unique and detailed elaborations on key issues such as soft power, great power image, the contrast between the rise of Germany and Japan, and the mystery of U.S. growth. It also offers strategic insights for great powers in the process of growth and is a specialized academic work in China that uses international political sociology to study the strategy of great power rise.