I like how Joseph Nye in this TED Talk frames the “rise” of Asia – including China – as the “return” of Asia.

What he doesn’t note, though, is the easy alignment of mercantilist economic policies and realist international relations theory. It’s interesting to note, too, in what the Wikipedia article lists as the causes for mercantilism, the same emphasis on transition that Nye emphasizes. Particularly, there’s the monetarist cause, when 18th Century Britain exported gold to pay for Chinese goods. “Mercantilism developed at a time when the European economy was in transition. Isolated feudal estates were being replaced by centralized nation-states as the focus of power. Technological changes in shipping and the growth of urban centers led to a rapid increase in international trade.” What seems compelling here is, that mercantilism is a stop-gap measure, not a coherent paradigm, during transitions between hegemonic periods.

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Filed under: Academia, Business/Economy, East Asia, Social Science, TED Talks, YouTube Tagged: china, international relations, joseph nye, mercantilism, realism