State, Emancipation and the Rise of China

Marxist tradition as a social philosophy has sought to locate emancipation in the person of the working class or various other sub-state actors. However, it has been obvious for long that the metahistorical agency entrusted with those forces is less than viable. Offering an alternative perspective to the question of the agent of emancipatory action, the present research attempts to situate the potential of emancipatory praxis in international relations with the state acting as the primary actor for dialectical change. It holds that, if a radical shift from the contemporary conditions of economic and political subjugation to respect for sovereignty, inclusive development and peaceful coexistence is to be realized, the direction of emancipatory flow must be from international to national. Thus, through a re-contextualization of emancipation at the interstate level of analysis, this study proposes a thorough evaluation of China's conceptualization of international governance against the backdrop of its ongoing material and ideational emergence.