Title: Conceptions of sovereignty and identity economics: a Chinese-based exploration

Authors: Roda Mushkat

Addresses: Hopkins-Nanjing Center, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Nanjing, 210093, China

Abstract: Constructivism has proved to be a powerful tool for dissecting international legal and political phenomena, such as sovereignty. However, like the intellectual paradigms which it seeks to complement, perhaps even unrealistically to supplant, this framework possesses limited explanatory power when proponents shun ideas from other sources and refrain from engaging in theoretical bridge-building. Identity economics has the potential to bring about cross-fertilisation between divergent schools of thought and, as China's experience selectively illustrates, place the empirical study of sovereignty on a firmer analytical footing.

Keywords: sovereignty; identity economics; constructivism; rationalism; realism; neoliberal institutionalism; strategic culture; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLAP.2014.063004

International Journal of Public Law and Policy, 2014 Vol.4 No.3, pp.245 - 278

Published online: 21 Nov 2014 *

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