Potential Alternatives in the Changing World Order.

• Author: Cinar, Yusuf
• Position: "China's Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order," "Russia After 2020: Looking Ahead After Two Decades of Putin," "Iran, Revolution, and Proxy Wars"

China's Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order

By Dawn C. Murphy

Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2022, 408 pages, $85.00, ISBN: 9781503630093

Russia after 2020: Looking Ahead after Two Decades of Putin

By J. Laurence Black

New York: Routledge, 2021, 421 pages, [pounds sterling]145.00, ISBN: 9780367745943

Iran, Revolution, and Proxy Wars

By Ofira Seliktar and Farhad Rezaei

Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, [pounds sterling]84.99, ISBN: 9783030294175

Discussions on monopolar and multipolar world order started after the Cold War. World order may generally categorize global norms that support international power balance and hierarchy. (1) When the American order had frequent crises after the Cold War, alternative world order discussions were re-triggered. These three works can help us interpret the effects of China, Russia, and Iran on the international system and guide us in understanding the discussions about the alternative world order.

China's Rise in the Global South: the Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order

China has been making its mark in international politics in the 21st century, and many studies about the country have been written to facilitate understanding of international developments. This book, written by Dawn C. Murphy, is an in-depth analysis of the efforts of China in creating an alternative world order. The book focuses on analyzing the type of rising power of China, by asking specific questions based on the increase in its abilities.

One of the most important questions about China at the beginning of the 21st century is: "Will the country be a part of the competition or will it be a collaborator-member in the international society?" It is crucial to understand whether China is drawing closer to the norms or moving away from them to understand the international system. The answer to this question brings forward another one: "Is China establishing an alternative world order, and if so what are the features of this new order?" In general, the author gives the impression that China's relationships with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan African countries cannot be separated from the historical process. The first section of the study is an introduction and the boundaries of the topic are analyzed, with a brief presentation of the context of the relationship between China, the countries in the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. This book claims that although China doesn't try to change the international land distribution in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, it increasingly competes with the U.S. and the West and challenges the rules of the liberal international system (p. 8).

In the second section, the behavioral aspects of China are analyzed. Its compliance with international society is considered, with an important note that emerging countries do not tend to cooperate with the existing hegemonic power (p. 13).

In the third section, it is emphasized that China's interest in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan geography did not start recently. According to the author, this interest began during Mao's era, further increased during the Cold War period, and eventually took its final form. (p. 25). Following this is an analysis of the contributions of commercial relationships in the context of foreign policy to the regional relationship between the Middle East, Sub-Saharan African countries, and China. The fourth section focuses on the effects of forums in China's efforts to establish and improve cooperation with these regions. In this context, it can be said that the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, established in 2000, and China-Arab Countries Cooperation Forum have ensured that China has important interactions with the regions. The type of relationship established between China and these regions is based on mutual respect for the land and sovereignty, nonaggression, not interfering in domestic affairs, equality, mutual benefit, and peace principles (p. 59).

In the fifth section of the study, the author analyzes an issue that previous studies have not considered in depth. The author discusses the system that China practices in solving regional issues, with careful analysis of the ambassadors at large. At this point, it is important to mention that this Chinese strategy isn't new: China-Middle East special matters ambassador (2002), China-Africa special matters ambassador (2007), and China-Syria special matters ambassador (2016) (p. 98). The...