国际舞台上的中国角色与中国学者的理论契机

China's Role on the World Stage and Its Implications for Theory Building

国际关系理论是对国际体系运行状况、运行规律的一种抽象性说明和解释。由于学者都是基于本国在国际体系中的角色和地位来进行理论思考,因此,一国所诞生的原创性国际关系理论在很大程度上取决于该国在国际体系中所处的位置。由于历史的变迁,中国在国际体系中的角色地位发生了多次变化,这种变化直接影响了中国学者对国际体系运行的理论认知。在过去相当长的一段时间里,中国要么与西方国际体系隔绝或者孤立,要么是西方体系的配角,中国没有对国际体系的原创性思考,因此也谈不上国际关系理论的建构。在21世纪的第二个十年里,中国成为国际舞台上的主要角色,这为中国提供了具有普遍意义的国际关系"核心问题"及随之而来的"问题组",从而给中国学者的国际关系研究特别是理论创造提供了难得的契机。在未来10—20年的时间里,如果中国国际关系学界能够进一步完善学术制度,并深入探索中国在国际体系中的行为特征及其带来的国际后果,中国学者有可能继美国学者和欧洲学者之后为国际关系学科贡献巨大的知识财富。

International relations theories are abstract descriptions and explanations for the operating conditions and patterns of international system. Since international relations scholars have paid close attention to their home country's role and status in the process of theory building,the production of original international relations theories,to a great extent,hinges upon that country's position in the international system. This is also the case with respect to China. For quite a long period of time,China had either been isolated from the Western international system or played a subordinate role in that system. As a result,there was no original thinking about or theory building of the international system in China. In the second decade of the 21 st century,China became a major player on the world stage,which has brought to China the'core problem'and'problem set'of international relations and offered to Chinese scholars a rare opportunity for theory building. In the next ten to twenty years,if the international relations discipline in China improves its scholarly research and explores the behavioral features of China and its ramifications for the international system,Chinese scholars,not unlike their American and European counterparts,will probably make enormous contributions to the study of international relations.