Beyond Compliance: China, International Organizations, and Global Security.

• Author: Bath, Vivienne
• Position: Book review

Ann E Kent, Beyond Compliance: China, International Organizations, and Global Security (Stanford University Press, 2007, ISBN-10: 0804755515, AUS$65, 360 pages)

This book is a study of China's compliance and cooperation with selected international organisations and its participation in, and contribution to, the international legal regimes in which those organisations are involved. Ann Kent looks at the theories which can be used to explain the reasons for compliance by a nation with the international legal regime, as a basis for examining China's involvement and engagement, both generally and through a detailed study of four different areas: the international security regime; the international political economy; the atmospheric environment; and human rights. Kent's theoretical aim in the study is to examine the behaviour of China as an authoritarian state that is 'least-likely' to comply with international treaties, and to use the results of the examination as a way of testing the different theories of compliance with international laws (summarised in the Introduction) and clarifying which aspects of China's behaviour reflect its compliance with international norms, and which 'are calculated merely to test the bounds of what the political situation will permit.' (1)

Kent's objective is to examine not only China's formal compliance with international norms and principles (which she sees as the legal concept of implementing and enforcing the requirements of international treaties or international organisations), but its level of cooperation and collaboration with the international rule-making process that underlies the development of international norms (which she limits to cooperating with, or attempting to block, the object and purpose of a particular international organisation or treaty). The study therefore (requires not only an examination of China's formal actions in relation to international treaties and organisations, but its political activities: in particular international organisations, and its role in the development of (or changes to) international treaties and agreements. This is an ambitious objective, given the broad range of China's activities in the international arena, but Kent's choice of different areas for study provide an interesting cross-section for examination. As Kent notes, China's cooperation in the international sphere is ultimately vital for assurance of international order and global security. (2) It is...