A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step: Towards a Confucian geopolitics

• Main Author: Kong, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: alternative geopolitics; appropriation; Confucian geopolitics; legitimization; narrative; practice; Chinese Studies; Human Geography; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research_all/28; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=soss_research_all
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This commentary welcomes the opportunity of a dialogue on the development of a Confucian geopolitics that offers an alternative to the prevailing dominant geopolitical theories. Three areas are discussed to further development of such an alternative. The first is the challenges (and not only the opportunities) of recovering Confucian values to inform foreign policy and international relations. The second is the appropriation of Confucian philosophy to legitimize state action, and how this is actually playing out in present-day China. The third is the slippage between narrative and practice – that is, how a narrative of Confucian geopolitics is translated in practice and how practice is or is not reflected in the narrative.