RESEARCH AGENDA

I study how rising powers address the norms and provisions for global governance and international security, with a primary focus on China, and more recently, India. My work contributes to general knowledge on causes of multilateral cooperation amongst states, and specifically identifies under what conditions and how these rising powers engage in international order-making. My research moves beyond debates about socializing rising powers into existing normative hierarchies, taking seriously their ideational and material capacities to reshape orders in their own making, with a focus on status, norms and human protection issues broadly defined (e.g. cyber norms, UN peacekeeping, intervention, and the responsibility to protect). My work contributes to several intellectual agendas. I seek to illuminate the study of International Relations by integrating area studies, using China as a case to test and develop general arguments about sources of cooperation. My research also contributes to efforts to globalize the discipline by studying a rising China's perspective as an opportunity to deepen our understanding of theory. I use new and original empirical data garnered from elite interviews and participant observation to inform studies of international order and global governance.

My work has been supported by a number of research fellowships, to include a 2023 Fulbright Scholarship to the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I was also a 2012 post-doctoral fellowship with the now Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program supported by the MacArthur Foundation, based at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. I held pre-doctoral fellowships with the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, and with the Global Peace Operations Program at the Center on International Cooperation, New York University.

My research has twice been supported by a Hong Kong Research Grants Council Government Research Fund grant (GRF), a Hong Kong Research Grants Council Early Career Scheme (ECS) award, the Konosuke Matsushita Memorial Foundation, and the Scaife Foundation.

WORKING PAPERS

MAPPING STATE INFLUENCE AT THE UNITED NATIONS: THE CASE OF CHINA

1. Shing-hon Lam and Courtney J. Fung. “Mapping China’s Influence at the United Nations” [Paper PDF]

China exerts influence at the United Nations over leadership personnel appointments. When countries have higher UN General Assembly voting affinity with China, these China-friendly states secure greater increase in UN leadership positions. These posts generate two pay-offs for China: in turn, moving China-friendly nationals into other UN leadership positions and aligning liberal discourse with PRC discourse by using PRC-specific terms and PRC-reinterpreted words. Using text analysis methods, we show that China-friendly leadership positively correlates with the use and frequency of PRC-specific terms in its reports. Also, China-friendly leadership tends more to use PRC-reinterpreted words in line with PRC meanings. Our project speaks to a limited literature on emerging power’s attempts to advance influence in multilateral institutions.

RISING POWERS AS GLOBAL SECURITY ACTORS

2. “Rising Powers and Norm Contestation: Norm Begrudgers in International Politics”

How do rising powers respond to changes in international order – especially when those changes deviate from their preferences? Much of the literature views rising powers as problematic actors for international order-making. However, this overlooks that rising powers use a specific set of resistance tactics, indicative of a missing norm ideal type, the norm begrudger: where the actor uses prior rhetoric and disengages with updating normative discourse, yet gives public support to institutionalize emerging norms; ultimately acquiescing through begrudging support. The norm begrudger role is selected when external support for normative change is strong and when the emerging norm is deprioritized. To isolate this ideal type, I use a specific puzzle of India’s normative engagement to the responsibility to protect, and trace India’s response from the inception, institutionalization and implementation of the norm during the Libya crisis at the UN Security Council. Research draws upon publicly-available sources and elite interviews.

CHINA'S ROLE IN CRAFTING GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

3.

BOOKS

Courtney J. Fung, China and Global Security Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Cambridge Elements in Global China Series, forthcoming).

Courtney J. Fung, China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)

ORDER FROM: OUP; Amazon

What explains China’s response to intervention at the UN Security Council? I argue that status is an overlooked determinant in understanding its decisions, even in the apex cases that are shadowed by a public discourse calling for foreign-imposed regime change in Sudan, Libya, and Syria. The book posits that China reconciles its status dilemma as it weighs decisions to intervene: seeking recognition from both its intervention peer groups of great powers and developing states. Understanding the impact and scope conditions of status answers why China has taken certain positions regarding intervention and how these positions were justified. Foreign policy behavior that complies with status, and related social factors like self-image and identity, means that China can select policy options bearing material costs. China and Intervention at the UN Security Council offers a rich study of Chinese foreign policy, going beyond works available in breadth and in depth. It draws on an extensive collection of data, including over two hundred interviews with UN officials and Chinese foreign policy elites, participant observation at UN Headquarters and a dataset of Chinese-language analysis regarding foreign-imposed regime change and intervention. The book concludes with new perspectives on the malleability of China’s core interests, insights about the application of status for cooperation, and the implications of the status dilemma for rising powers.

PRIZES

2019–2020 HKU Research Output Prize for the Faculty of Social Sciences
Shortlisted for the LHM Ling Outstanding First Book Prize by the British International Studies Association

PODCAST

Interview with Ms. Bonnie Glaser, CSIS ChinaPower Podcast Series, 19 June 2019

CSIS · China’s Evolving Role in the United Nations: A Conversation with Courtney Fung

ENDORSEMENTS

Thomas J. Christensen, Columbia University

With this very fine book, Courtney Fung has established herself as the leading authority on China’s policies regarding humanitarian intervention by the United Nations. Reconciling Status is essential reading for anyone interested in international humanitarian crises, the United Nations, or the implications of China’s rise for world politics.

Rosemary Foot, University of Oxford

Carefully argued, theoretically astute and empirically rich, this book provides crucial insights into the bounded variation of China’s positions at the UN Security Council on intervention. The author’s contributions are many, including how social influence works to mediate Chinese interests, and how process-tracing can effectively be applied in International Relations scholarship. This book is essential reading for all those interested in China’s UN behaviour.

Steve Chan, University of Colorado, Boulder

China’s attitudes toward United Nations interventions in situations of civil war and mass atrocities have evolved from skeptical opposition to conditional support. Comparing Beijing’s actions in cases involving Sudan, Libya and Syria, Courtney Fung makes a novel contribution to our understanding of Chinese foreign policy. She shows that under certain conditions, Beijing’s position on such interventions with a strong undertone of regime change can be influenced by international political opinion and consideration of China’s international status. This book should be on the shelves of all scholars interested in China’s increasing participation in multilateral diplomacy and its quest for status recognition, which can be a source for international cooperation rather than just competition as usually assumed in the current literature.

REVIEWS

Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia University. Review in Foreign Affairs

Fung makes sense of China’s seemingly confused voting record at the UNSC on issues involving armed interventions and the referral of leaders to the ICC.

Champa Patel, Chatham House. Review in International Affairs

This is an important and timely contribution to the field of China, international peace and security and global governance studies and is essential reading for those seeking to better understand China's actions.

Joel Wuthnow, National Defense University. Review in China Quarterly

She not only draws attention to an underappreciated motive of Chinese foreign policy, but also develops a sophisticated, and largely persuasive, theory of how and when status concerns encourage leaders to do the unexpected.

John Delury, Yonsei University. Review in Global Asia

With theoretical sophistication and detailed case studies, Fung argues that Beijing carefully gauges how two key “peer groups” will judge its position on sensitive cases of potential UN intervention in another state’s domestic affairs, and acts accordingly... her study has important implications for understanding how Beijing approaches international co-operation, particularly intervention.

Jingdong Yuan, University of Sydney, Review in Australian Outlook

Courtney J. Fung’s China and Intervention at the UN Security Council offers a fascinating insight into the rationales, debates, and policy choices of Beijing’s responses to humanitarian interventions. In particular, this new addition to the growing scholarship on Chinese foreign policy seeks to explain an important, but thus far understudied, determinant—status—that increasingly features with increasing prominence in its decisions.

Mauro Barelli, City University Law School, Review in International Community Law Review

This is a very well written and rigorously researched book. One of its principal merits is that it draws extensively on primary resources, including over 200 interviews with UN officials and Chinese foreign policy elites. With this very welcome book, Fung does not only help the reader understand how China approaches the question of non-consensual intervention at the Security Council, but also exposes Beijing’s increasing difficulties in manoeuvering between the often contradictory interests of the two peer groups with which it identifies itself. The way in which China will respond to this challenge will have profound implications because it will not only affect Beijing’s handling of conflict situations but will also define, more broadly, its identity as a new global power.

Marc Lanteigne, Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Review in The China Journal

China and Intervention at the UN Security Council is a timely book, given
emerging dialogues about how Beijing, as its power increases, is seeking to redefine many aspects of the international order...It is essential reading for those interested in studying the course of Chinese foreign policy from regional to international concerns, the country’s widening engagement with the UN system and its security organs, and the kind of great power, with the ability to influence global rules and norms, that China is evolving into.

Andrew Garwood-Gowers, Queensland University of Technology, Review in the Global Responsibility to Protect

China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status will be of great interest and value to international relations scholars working across a range of sub-fields, including Chinese foreign policy, UN diplomacy and politics, and humanitarian protection/responsibility to protect. Fung’s theory on status makes an important contribution to the general international relations literature because it “bridges both rationalist and constructivist approaches” and illustrates how status considerations can be a “determinant of cooperation” on global security matters rather than merely a cause of competition and conflict (p. 143). The book offers valuable insights into how China formulates its positions on intervention and humanitarian protection in the Security Council, helping us to understand the conditions under which status concerns may contribute to a Chinese decision to support, or at least acquiesce to, non-consensual protection measures.

EDITED BOOK

New Paths and Policies towards Conflict Prevention: Chinese and Swiss Perspectives
Edited By Courtney J. Fung, Björn Gehrmann, Rachel F. Madenyika, Jason G. Tower
Routledge, 2021

ORDER FROM: Routledge, Amazon

This book explores the discourse on conflict prevention and peacebuilding by bringing together researchers from China and Switzerland over a series policy dialogues.

The Charter of the United Nations, adopted in the immediate aftermath of World War II, is clear about the fundamental necessity for the international community to act in partnership to prevent violent conflict. Given recent shifts in global power dynamics, there is an apparent need for international policy issues to be addressed in ways that are inclusive of a wider variety of perspectives and approaches. Chinese policy actors are increasingly interested in fostering their own discourse on issues of prevention and peacebuilding, rooted in Chinese experience, and engaging with peers from other contexts. The chapters in this volume explore the rationale for conflict prevention and review prevailing academic and practitioner discourses on fundamental questions such as the rationales for why conflicts should be prevented and whether ‘mainstream approaches’ are still relevant.

This book will be of interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, Chinese politics, and International Relations.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

2024, Shing-hon Lam and Courtney J. Fung, “Personnel Power Shift Ongoing: Preparing China’s International Civil Service Contributions’,” Global Policy, forthcoming.

2024, Jonathan Symons, Courtney J. Fung, Dhanasree Jayaram, Sofia Kabbej and Matt McDonald, “Australia, we need to talk about solar geoengineering,” Australian Journal of International Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/10357718.2024.2333811.

2023, Courtney J. Fung, “China’s Use of Rhetorical Adaptation in Development of a Global Cyber Order: a case study of the norm of the protection of the public core of the internet,” Journal of Cyber Policy, DOI: 10.1080/23738871.2023.2178946.

2022, Courtney J. Fung, “Peace by piece: China’s policy leadership on peacekeeping fatalities,” Contemporary Security Policy, DOI: 10.1080/13523260.2022.2102735

2022, Courtney J. Fung, “Rising Powers and Normative Resistance: China, India and the Responsibility to Protect,” Journal of Contemporary China, DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2022.2090076.

2022, Courtney J. Fung, Enze Han, Kai Quek, and Austin Strange, “The Evolution of Chinese International Influence: Intentionality, Intermediaries, and Institutions,” introduction to special section in Journal of Contemporary China, doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2022.2052436.

2021, Courtney J. Fung and Shing-hon Lam, "Staffing the United Nations: China's motivations and prospects," International Affairs 97, no. 4. DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiab071.

[Data for Figure 5] [Figure 6] [Figure 7]

2021, Courtney J. Fung and Shing-hon Lam, “Contesting Roles: Rising Powers as ‘Net Providers of Security’,” Journal of Global Security Studies 6, no. 3. DOI: 10.1093/jogss/ogaa034. PDF

2021, Courtney J. Fung, “Just Not In The Neighbourhood: China's Views on the Application of the Responsibility to Protect in the DPRK,” The China Quarterly 246: 565–585. DOI: 10.1017/S0305741020000648. PDF

2020, Courtney J. Fung, “Providing for Global Security: Implications of China’s Combat Troop Deployment to UN Peacekeeping,” Global Governance 25, no. 4: 509–34. DOI: 10.1163/19426720-02504006. PDF

2020, Courtney J. Fung, “Rhetorical Adaptation and International Order-Making: China’s Advancement of the Responsibility to Protect,” Cooperation and Conflict 55, no. 2: 193–215. DOI: 10.1177/0010836719858118. PDF

2019, Courtney J. Fung, "Negotiating the Nuclear and Humanitarian Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: A Simulation and Teaching Guide,” PS: Political Science & Politics 52, no. 1: 113–6. DOI: 10.1017/S1049096518001026. PDF

2018, Courtney J. Fung, "Separating Intervention from Regime Change? China’s Diplomatic Innovations at the UN Security Council Regarding the Syria Crisis,” The China Quarterly 235: 693–712. DOI: 10.1017/S0305741018000851. PDF

2016, Courtney J. Fung, "What explains China's deployment to UN peacekeeping operations?” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 16, no. 3: 409–41. DOI: 10.1093/irap/lcv020. PDF

2016, Courtney J. Fung, "Global South solidarity? China, regional organisations and intervention in the Libyan and Syrian civil wars,” Third World Quarterly 37, no. 1: 33–50. DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2015.1078230. PDF

2011, Courtney J. Richardson, "A Responsible Power? China and the UN Peacekeeping Regime,” International Peacekeeping 18, no. 3: 288–99. DOI: 10.1080/13533312.2011.563082. PDF

BOOK CHAPTERS/REVIEWS

2024, Courtney J. Fung, Book review of New Asian Disorder: Rivalries Embroiling the Pacific Century, edited by Lowell Dittmer, The China Journal 91: 101-103.

2022, Courtney J. Fung, “Is China Changing the International Humanitarian Intervention Regime?” in Maria Adele Carrai, Jennifer Rudolph, Michael Szonyi, eds., The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022).

2022, Courtney J. Fung, Book review of China, The UN, and Human Protection: Beliefs, Power, Image, by Rosemary Foot, H-Diplo Roundtable XXIII-47, https://hdiplo.org/to/RT23-47.

2022, Courtney J. Fung, Book review of China’s Political Worldview and Chinese Exceptionalism: International Order and Global Leadership, by Benjamin Tze Ern Ho, The China Journal 88: 213-214.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, "China, India and Global Security: Deploying to UN Peacekeeping Operations and Shaping the Responsibility to Protect," in Kanti Bajpai, Manjari C. Miller and Selina Ho, eds., Routledge Handbook of China–India Relations (London: Routledge), pp. 531–50.

2015, Courtney J. Fung, Book review of "China and the United Nations: Chinese UN Policy in the Areas of Peace and Development in the Era of Hu Jintao, by Janka Oertel,” The China Quarterly 223: 818–20. DOI: 10.1017/S0305741015000910. PDF

2012, Courtney J. Fung, "A Responsible Power? China and the UN Peacekeeping Regime,” in Marc Lanteigne and Miwa Hirono, eds., China’s Evolving Approach to Peacekeeping (London: Routledge), pp. 44–55.

2011, Courtney J. Fung, "Contributors to UN Peacekeeping: The Comparative Case of China,” in Zhao Lei, eds., The Cutting-Edge Issues of China's Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations (Beijing: Shishi Press), pp. 467–87. [in Chinese and English]

COMMENTARY

Mixed report card: China’s influence at the United Nations

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2022, Courtney J. Fung and Shing-hon Lam, “Mixed report card: China’s influence at the United Nations.” Lowy Institute Analysis (18 December) https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/mixed-report-card-china-s-influence-united-nations.

2022, Courtney J. Fung, “How China Promotes Cyber Sovereignty.” EU Cyber Direct Directions Blog (23 November) https://directionsblog.eu/how-china-promotes-cyber-sovereignty/.

2021, Courtney J. Fung and Shing-hon Lam, “Why the increase in Chinese staff at the United Nations matters.” International Affairs Blog (2 August) https://medium.com/international-affairs-blog/why-the-increase-in-chinese-staff-at-the-united-nations-matters-e0c30fdfcc46.

2021, Courtney J. Fung, “How China is Changing - And Being Changed by - the UN.” Interview for the Asia Matters Podcast Series (28 March) https://asiamatterspod.com/episode-30.

2020, Courtney J. Fung and Shing-hon Lam," Chinas ›bürokratischer Fußabdruck‹ in den UN" ["China's Bureaucratic Footprint at the United Nations"], German Review on the United Nations, (16 December) https://zeitschrift-vereinte-nationen.de/suche/zvn/artikel/chinas-buerokratischer-fussabdruck-in-den-un/.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, commentary on 'China's Role in the United Nations' for “A Strategic Roadmap for Reentry 2021 and Beyond: Advancing Institutional Commitments in a New Geostrategic Environment.” Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania and the Brookings Institution (15 October).

2020, Courtney J. Fung, podcast for the China Africa Project China in Africa podcast series ‘Chinese UN Peacekeeping in Africa’ (9 October)
https://chinaafricaproject.com/podcasts/chinese-un-peacekeeping-in-africa/.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, commentary for Chatham House/Royal Institute for International Affairs webinar on China’s Role in the United Nations (22 September).

2020, Courtney J. Fung, “Special Episode: 75th United Nations General Assembly.” Podcast for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (21 September) https://soundcloud.com/user-415599049/special-episode-75th-united-nations-general-assembly.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, “China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status.” Interview for the New Books Network Podcast Series (19 May) https://newbooksnetwork.com/courtney-j-fung-china-and-intervention-at-the-un-security-council-reconciling-status-oxford-up-2019/.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, "Pandemic Fallout: Advantage China?" Interview for the Asia Matters Podcast Series (13 May) https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/pandemic-fallout-advantage-china/id1487381702?i=1000474432733.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, Commentary in “How Will China Shape Global Governance?” A ChinaFile Conversation (9 May) https://www.chinafile.com/conversation/how-will-china-shape-global-governance.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, “China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status.” Interview for the ChinaFile Book Series (12 March) https://www.chinafile.com/library/books/china-and-intervention-un-security-council.

2020, Courtney J. Fung, “China in the Hot Seat at the UN.” Interview for the PassBlue UN-Scripted Podcast Series (6 March). https://soundcloud.com/user-936032402/ep16-coronavirus-china-presidency.

2020, Courtney J. Fung and Shing-Hon Lam, “China already leads 4 of the 15 UN specialized agencies – and is aiming for a 5th.” Washington Post Monkey Cage blog (4 March). https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/03/china-already-leads-4-15-un-specialized-agencies-is-aiming-5th/, PDF.

2019, Courtney J. Fung, “Is China’s Influence at the United Nations all it’s cracked up to be?” Washington Post Monkey Cage blog (7 October). https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/07/is-chinas-influence-united-nations-all-that-its-cracked-up-be/, PDF.

2017, Courtney J. Fung, "Foreign-Imposed Regime Change and Intervention in Chinese Foreign Policy at the UN Security Council." The East Asia Institute. Fellows Program on Peace, Governance, and Development in East Asia. Working Paper (October). PDF

2016, Courtney J. Fung, "China's Troop Contributions to UN Peacekeeping.” United States Institute of Peace. Peace Brief 212 (July). PDF

2016, Courtney J. Fung, "China and the Responsibility to Protect: From Opposition to Advocacy.” United States Institute of Peace. Peace Brief 205 (June). PDF

2014, Courtney J. Fung, "Norm Consumer, Norm Entrepreneur: China in the UN Peacekeeping Regime." University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute. Asia Dialogue (December 9). PDF