1st Edition
Human Security and the Chinese State Historical Transformations and the Modern Quest for Sovereignty
Offering a fresh and unique approach to surveying the historical transformations of the Chinese state, Human Security and the Chinese State focuses on human security in contrast with the twenty-first century obsession with national security. Building upon Hobbes' Leviathan, Robert Bedeski demonstrates how the sovereignty of the state reflects primary human concerns of survival, indeed, that fundamental purpose of the state is the preservation of the life of its citizens. Combining political science theory with historical literary, cinematic and sociological materials and ideas, Bedeski has produced a truly original approach to the last two thousand years of Chinese political history, explaining the longevity of the imperial Confucian state and locating the dilemma of modern China in its incomplete sovereignty.
1. Human Survival, Human Institutions, and Human Security 2. Dimensions of Human Security: Foundations in Individual Human Life 3. The Modern Sovereign Nation-State 4. Prologue to a Theory of Human Security 5. A Notational Theory of Human Security 6. Actualizing Imperial Sovereignty in Ancient China 7. Claiming Dynastic Sovereignty under the Imperial Meta-Constitution 8. Sovereignty and State-Building in Late Qing and Republican China 9. Contemporary China's Incomplete Sovereignty - Fusion, Succession, and Adoption
Biography
Robert E. Bedeski is Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, and Program Professor Emeritus, Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
'He has made a unique contribution to increasing our understanding of Chinese state sovereignty and state-building' - Gerald Chan, International Spectator, September 2008
