Assistant Professor Dan Large has recently co-authored an article with Chris Alden in The China Quarterly on “China’s engagement with the development of norms on security in Africa.” China has been building a strong presence in numerous conflict-affected African countries under the banner of its principle of non-interference. However, initial economic successes have been tempered by a series of setbacks rooted in the very state fragility and conflict conditions that once seemed so accommodating. In response, China has been moving away from a reactive stance based on non-interference to selective engagement. This involves a process whereby Chinese policy makers have begun to reframe established norms on security and development to be more in line with China’s principles and core interests.
Large and Alden argue that Africa is a “relatively benign setting for ‘foreign policy experimentation’” for China. They note that this example of evolving Chinese foreign policy has significant implications for its policies elsewhere in the world and reveals “the conundrum surrounding reconciling foreign policy principles and interests with the manifest demands of an enhanced global role in the international system.”