ABSTRACT
Domestic-international linkage is one of the most important paradigms in the field of foreign policy analysis. It is commonly believed that to fully understand a country’s foreign policy, one must conduct in-depth research on the internal environment and domestic basis of foreign policy making. Intellectuals and think tanks have exerted great influence in Western societies on their countries’ foreign policy directions. In recent times, attention has been moved to the link between China’s foreign policy and its domestic environment as the country continues to undertake profound reform and its rise becomes a focus of world attention.1 1. Changes and Continuities Against this background, this chapter will examine the impact of intellectuals and think tanks on Chinese foreign policy, a subject that has drawn broad attention among China watchers in the West. A prime example of this attention comes in the September 2002 issue of China Quarterly, which was largely dedicated to the study of China’s think tanks. In this issue, Murray Scot Tanner2 examines the evolving think tank system in China by using the case of China’s growing commercialization, which has spawned a new generation of think tanks. He further argues that generational change is evident in China’s previously unstudied network of public security think tanks. These institutes, according to Tanner, have been in the forefront of importing and incorporating more sophisticated crime-fighting tactics and less class-based theories of social unrest. David Shambaugh3 argues that over the past two decades, China’s foreign policy think tanks have come to play increasingly important roles in Chinese foreign policy making and intelligence analysis. He provides a detailed analysis on the think tanks’ structure and processes by offering historical perspectives on the evolution of this community. Shambaugh further argues that these think tanks often offer important indications of broader policy debates and competitions between institutions and their
staff. Bonnie Glaser and Philip Saunders4 focus their research on the increasing influence of civilian foreign policy research institutes. They argue that a more pluralistic and competitive policy environment has given analysts at think tanks more influence but has also created new competition from analysts and authors working out of traditional research institutions. Bates Gill and James Mulvenon5 bring their research focus to the national research community in Beijing by arguing that this community is dominated by think tanks and other research organizations affiliated with specific governmental institutions. Furthermore, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) maintains its own set of internal and affiliated research bodies, performing a variety of intelligence, exchange, and research functions. Barry Naughton6 examines economic think tanks in China. He states that although all of these think tanks are government sponsored, they offer important alternatives to the policies and advice available within the formal governmental bureaucracy. He notes, however, that some independent think tanks have emerged along with the increasing network of policy advisors to China’s top leaders. Sometimes these policy advisors play a more important role than think tanks.
