Seminar Abstract

The concept of rising powers is a crucially important one in international relations, central to questions of power transitions, war and peace. Despite the emphasis on these states by both IR theorists and policy experts, there is very little agreement on which state is a rising power, when they rose, and when they have risen. This is because these states are primarily analysed through the lens of their material capabilities. In this book project, the speaker argues instead that rising powers also need to be analysed in terms of their beliefs about great power. The speaker examines historical cases of rising powers—the US, the Netherlands, Japan and Germany—to show how beliefs played a role in their rise, and then draw lessons for our understanding of China and India today.

About the Speaker

Manjari Chatterjee Miller is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, and the author of Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China. She works on foreign policy and security issues with a focus on South and East Asia, particularly India and China. Her work has appeared in academic journals as well as non-academic outlets such as Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, The Diplomat, the Asia Society Policy Institute, The Hindu and the Christian Science Monitor, and been supported by, among others, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the East-West Center, Oxford University, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the US Department of Education. Before joining Boston University, Miller completed her PhD at Harvard University, and a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University.