Neoclassical Realism and Role Theory Revisited -The Comparative Case of. U.S. and Chinese Foreign Policies

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores how structure and national role conceptions (NRC) shape foreign policy behavior. U.S. and Chinese foreign policy behaviors are studied from a system-level and state-level of analysis to investigate how U.S.-Chinese relations are affected by a shifting international structure and roles in the context of rising nationalism under President Xi and Trump. Neoclassical realism and the concept of role theory are applied as the theoretical framework, both are combined into the concept of ‘balance of roles’. Order defender, order challenger, defender of faith, and contributor to peace and security were identified as NRCs. A comparative study is conducted, using Most-Similar-Systems-Design to identify similarities and differences between the selected cases. Followed by a qualitative content analysis of key foreign policy documents from the U.S. and China from 2011 to 2019. The thesis concludes that structure shapes foreign policy behavior by providing the limits of how states can act. Conflictual NRCs of order defender and order challenger make the U.S. and China follow a foreign policy of balancing. China pursuing a more offensive realist foreign policy, and the U.S. a defensive foreign policy. The NRC remained stable, thus multipolarity effects foreign policy to the largest extent.