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Over a relatively short period of time, Beijing moved from dismissing the UN to embracing it. How are we to make sense of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) embrace of the UN, and what does its engagement mean in larger terms?
This study focuses directly on Beijing's involvement in one of the most contentious areas of UN activity -- human protection -- contentious because the norm of human protection tips the balance away from the UN's Westphalian state-based profile, towards the provision of greater protection for the security of individuals and their individual liberties. The argument that follows shows that, as an ever-more crucial actor within the United Nations, Beijing's rhetoric and some of its practices are playing an increasingly important role in determining how this norm is articulated and interpreted. In some cases, the PRC is also influencing how these ideas of human protection are implemented. At stake in the questions this book tackles is both how we understand the PRC as a participant in shaping global order, and the future of some of the core norms which constitute that order.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Defining the Scope
- 2: UN Peace Operations
- 3: The Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
- 4: The Responsibility to Protect
- 5: The Syrian Crisis
- 6: The UN's Human Rights Bodies
- 7: Positioning Development in Human Protection
- 8: Conclusion: Shaping from Within?
About the author
Rosemary Foot is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. In 1996, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Her publications include China, the United States and Global Order (with Andrew Walter, CUP, 2011) and Rights Beyond Borders (OUP, 2000). Her research interests cover security relations in the Asia-Pacific, human rights diplomacy, China's influence on regional and global order, and China-US relations.
Summary
This book examines China's efforts to work within international institutions that have played a defining role in post-World War II global order.
Additional text
The work is timely and significant because of a number of reasons...The book is useful for students of international relations, especially those rooted in Chinese and Asia Pacific studies. It is useful for readers exploring the rules-based international order, humanitarian contexts, civilian protection instruments, and norms within the UN system. Foot's work helps us understand human protection complexities and helps us foresee China's vigorous capabilities. The work shows readers the dynamism of international governance and development today.
Report
Rosemary Foot, a distinguished scholar of China and of human rights, has written an important new book on China's approach to human protection at and within the United Nations (UN). This succinctly argued account builds upon her decades of scholarship on these topics; the result is what one reviewer terms "essential reading for policy and scholarly audiences alike. Sarah B. Snyder, American University, Washington DC, H-Diplo
