Apr 21, 2021
"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must". If you've ever been introduced to a History of global power balances, this quote from the Melian dialogue in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War may ring familiar. And yet mighty states and alliances, at odds with this realist mantra, do not always muscle their way diplomatically to get what they want. Sometimes they may opt to lay low and bid for their time. This was admittedly the tenor of China’s policy for years following the Tiananmen Square massacre. But a marked and rapid shift towards a more forceful form of Sinocentric diplomacy seems well under way, as China no longer fears strong-arming and threatening its critics in a post-Covid landscape rife with uncertainty and Western indecision. The "wolf warriors" refers to this new generation of diplomats, journalists and politicians taking us towards a nastier form of political and symbolic rapports between rival states. So to paraphrase the great Baha Men in their chart-topping single from 2000, today we ask—"who let China's wolves out?". Janka Oertel from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and Antoine Bondaz from the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS) know a thing or two, so listen closely.
Rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions at @UnDecencyPod or uncommondecencypod@gmail.com.