Anne Kent. 2007. Beyond compliance: China, international organizations, and global security (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press)

Excerpt

Ann Kent begins Beyond Compliance: China, International Organizations, and Global Security with Adlai Stevenson’s 1961 rejection of the idea that allowing the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) into the United Nations might make it a more cooperative global player. With China’s international participation no longer a counterfactual, Kent uses a comparative method analyzing relevant Chinese behavior before and after entrance into various international organizations to determine their effect on non-liberal states. Specifically, Beyond Compliance presents the cases of China in the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the UN Committee against Torture (CAT). The author also presents “mini-case studies” of China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Health Organization (WHO). According to Kent, as a least likely case due to its “history, cultural traditions, and power,” China’s compliance suggests that non-liberal states are influenced by international laws and norms, while the multilateral system, through the socialization of “recalcitrant members,” has enhanced global security and improved lives. …