China’s Rise in the Global South - Review

Matt Kuhlman

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The geo-political tension between the United States and China is often framed in the context of the rivalry in the Pacific region. Dawn Murphy contributes to this conversation with a refreshing analysis by focusing on China’s efforts in Africa and the Middle East. In these regions, she convincingly argues, China is establishing spheres of influence and is increasingly competitive against the United States and the West, challenging the rules of the Liberal International Order (p.8). Beijing’s goal is to build an alternative order that can one day displace the United States as the pre-eminent power. Murphy offers a helpful framework that conceptualizes China’s efforts into a cooperative or competitive categories of political, economic, and military actions in relation to US efforts, and whether those efforts are norm convergent or norm divergent from the Liberal International Order (p.9).

In China’s Rise in the Global South, Murphy shines light on an increasingly relevant and discussed topic in academia and in policy circles. Rush Doshi and Ketian Zhang draw similar attention to China’s efforts and global ambition. While Doshi offers a broad perspective of China’s ambitions, and Zhang provides a refined understanding of a specific foreign policy tool, Murphy’s contributions to this discussion provides a middle-ground comparative aspect of China’s foreign policy efforts in two regions of importance, Africa and the Middle East.