Examining domestic foreign policy debates within rising powers provides insights into how these countries will behave as they rise. Five important rising powers in the critical Asian and Eurasian regions today are China, Japan, India, Iran and Russia. An international research team under the direction of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, is in the process of analyzing the foreign policy debates and schools of thought within these countries. This research is part of the Sigur Center’s project on “Worldviews of Aspiring Powers” sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation, and led by Sigur faculty members Henry R. Nau and Deepa Ollapally.

This Policy Brief draws from the presentations of the research team at a project conference held in Beijing, China in May 2010. It examines the attitude of the five rising powers toward hard power, specifically economic power and military power. There is a great deal of diversity within and between these five countries regarding the emphasis placed on these types of power. The following discussion offers a look at some of these differences and similarities.

Read the rest of the Policy Brief here

By Dawn Murphy, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science, The George Washington University