Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account
This article outlines how Xi Jinping has exercised control over diplomatic actors, particularly China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and draws out the effects of this control for the ministry and for Chinese foreign policy. Leveraging Bourdieu's (1984) concept of “field,” I demonstrate how...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145550 |
| _version_ | 1811686230008528896 |
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| author | Loh, Dylan Ming Hui |
| author2 | School of Social Sciences |
| author_facet | School of Social Sciences Loh, Dylan Ming Hui |
| author_sort | Loh, Dylan Ming Hui |
| collection | NTU |
| description | This article outlines how Xi Jinping has exercised control over diplomatic actors, particularly China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and draws out the effects of this control for the ministry and for Chinese foreign policy. Leveraging Bourdieu's (1984) concept of “field,” I demonstrate how Xi has – through processes of socialisation, restriction, and displays of fealty – bred local diplomatic field incentives in which actors exhibit more loyal, assertive, and disciplined behaviour. Next, I introduce the idea of “transversal disruption” – the potential of local fields to disrupt and introduce change on and in overlapping fields, and vice versa. Practice theorists have relatively little to say about inter-field effects, and this article seeks to fill this gap by showing how field rules in the transnational diplomatic space can change when fields meet. I illustrate the above through three cases of field encounters: the multilateral Track II diplomacy field; the transnational fields of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and, the China–Malaysia bilateral diplomatic field. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:57:06Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/145550 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:57:06Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1455502023-03-05T15:32:32Z Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account Loh, Dylan Ming Hui School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Political science China Diplomacy This article outlines how Xi Jinping has exercised control over diplomatic actors, particularly China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and draws out the effects of this control for the ministry and for Chinese foreign policy. Leveraging Bourdieu's (1984) concept of “field,” I demonstrate how Xi has – through processes of socialisation, restriction, and displays of fealty – bred local diplomatic field incentives in which actors exhibit more loyal, assertive, and disciplined behaviour. Next, I introduce the idea of “transversal disruption” – the potential of local fields to disrupt and introduce change on and in overlapping fields, and vice versa. Practice theorists have relatively little to say about inter-field effects, and this article seeks to fill this gap by showing how field rules in the transnational diplomatic space can change when fields meet. I illustrate the above through three cases of field encounters: the multilateral Track II diplomacy field; the transnational fields of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and, the China–Malaysia bilateral diplomatic field. Published version 2020-12-28T06:06:25Z 2020-12-28T06:06:25Z 2018 Journal Article Loh, D. M. H. (2018). Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 47(3), 111-145. doi:10.1177/186810261804700305 1868-4874 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145550 10.1177/186810261804700305 3 47 111 145 en Journal of Current Chinese Affairs © 2018 The Author(s) (published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, in co-operation with the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, and Hamburg University Press). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 License (https://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Social sciences::Political science China Diplomacy Loh, Dylan Ming Hui Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account |
| title | Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account |
| title_full | Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account |
| title_fullStr | Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account |
| title_full_unstemmed | Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account |
| title_short | Diplomatic control, foreign policy, and change under Xi Jinping : a field-theoretic account |
| title_sort | diplomatic control foreign policy and change under xi jinping a field theoretic account |
| topic | Social sciences::Political science China Diplomacy |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145550 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lohdylanminghui diplomaticcontrolforeignpolicyandchangeunderxijinpingafieldtheoreticaccount |