ABSTRACT
The great power club is an exclusive social community; whereas some states are members, others remain outsiders. In the twenty-first century China's rise to the status of great power may in turn transform the conceptualisation of great power responsibility. In pursuing a normative discussion about great power climate responsibility from the perspective of the English School and other modes of thinking, this chapter first introduces the concept of the great power club. It then discusses normative dimensions of great power responsibility from the perspective of the pluralist–solidarist debate within the English School. The chapter examines the sort of requirements that the United States, as an established great power, has set for China's membership in the great power club and how China has responded to those expectations. Both pluralists and solidarists agree that great powers have a special responsibility to ensure the achievement of international society's ultimate goals given their special role in that society.
