Contemplating Chinese Foreign Policy: Approaches to the Use of Historical Analysis

Many have contemplated C hinese foreign policy and its future direction, but few have queried how Chinese history might illuminate both. This is unfortunate since researchers have shown that history can influence foreign policy agendas, discourses, and national goals. Moreover, it provides an invaluable tool for comparative analysis. The purpose of this introduction is to provide historical background to the articles comprising this special issue, whose contributors employ historical analysis, with the period preceding and following the X inhai R evolution as a basis, to illuminate contemporary C hinese foreign policy – e.g., C hina's interest in remaking the international order and its security norms – or to suggest differences between past and present – for example, in regards to C hina's A sia– P acific posture. This introduction also hopes to stimulate further work on C hinese history and foreign policy by highlighting similarities and differences between past and present with respect to, inter alia, pressures against C hina's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence, the penetration of foreign actors and ideas into C hina, and domestic factors limiting C hina's efforts to filter external influences and to respond to them.