话语转向、安全叙事与拜登政府的对华战略

Discursive Turn,Security Narratives and Biden Administration’s Strategy towards China

美国对中国的威胁认知以及由此形成的具有竞争性和对抗性的对华战略是当今学界关注的重点议题,但对其进行原因探究时,叙事的作用时常被忽视。实际上,威胁通常经由叙事得以构建,美国如何通过安全叙事识别、塑造并应对威胁是研究其对华战略的起点。鉴于国际关系学科的话语与叙事转向,以及该学科在科学主义和权力导向支配下叙事被忽视的客观现实,有必要解构并揭示叙事的基本假设、隐喻和矛盾。综合分析安全叙事对国家对外战略的作用机制可以发现,安全叙事主要通过塑造叙事角色、设定叙事情节、重构叙事话语以及重设叙事边界为国家的对外战略弥合国内政治的分歧、提供道德上的优越性、塑造背景性知识及扩展政策空间。以此为逻辑,拜登政府的对华竞争叙事也是经由以上四种机制作用于对华战略。这种塑造“自我”与“他者”对立的模式始终处于美式战略思维的核心,美国的身份认同也始终伴随着“恒定正义”的自我与“邪恶他者”的想象。

The U.S.perceptions of threat from China and its competitive and confrontational strategy towards China have received substantial academic attention,while the role of narrative has been often overlooked in existing academic literature.In fact,threats are often constructed through narratives.How the U.S.identifies,shapes and responds to the threats through security narratives is an important point for examining its strategy towards China.In view of the discursive and narrative turn in the discipline of international relations and the objective reality of the discipline’s neglect of narrative under the domination of scientism and power orientation,it is necessary to deconstruct and reveal the underlying assumptions,metaphors and contradic⁃tions of the narratives.A comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms of enabling the security narratives in the foreign strategies reveals that the security narratives are used to bridge domestic political divides,provide moral superiority,shape contextual knowledge and expand policy space for the foreign strategies by shaping narrative roles,setting narrative plots,reconstructing narrative discourses and reshaping narrative boundaries.In this sense,the Biden administration’s narrative of competition against China also works through these four mechanisms in its strategy towards China.This mode of shaping the distinction between“self”and“other”has always been at the heart of American strategic thinking,and the identity of the United States has always been constructed by imaging itself as the constant justice and seeing others as the evil.