Thomas P.M. Barnett's Blueprint for Action has gone into Chinese printing. Which leads me to wonder - why aren't American publishers more interested in geopolitical and military treatises from Chinese authors?
You can't go to an airport bookstore without seeing a dozen "OMG, Rise of China!" books. But the only works of Chinese strategic thought most Americans are familiar with are that of Sun Tzu (ancient), Mao (foundational in some ways but written for mainly guerrilla warfare) and Unrestricted Warfare (interesting but only one side of defense debates within China). You aren't, however, going to see any books written by Chinese thinkers after the Deng Xiaopeng era in print from foreign policy and military publishers.
Americans outside of the Chinese military studies commhity are not as familiar with other important and timely Chinese geopolitical and defense texts such as 1999's Zhanluexue (The Study of Strategy) or 2000's Zhanyixue (The Science of Military Campaigns). I have read the latter and it is an interesting exposition on campaigning from the perspective of Chinese strategic and grand strategic requirements. But you won't find either in Barnes and Noble, and you'll be lucky to even get an English copy through interlibrary loan.
The point is that American publishers evince absolutely zero interest in open-source Chinese foreign policy, geopolitical, and military texts. Given China's status as a rising power, it is immensely frustrating that we'd rather read the airport books I mentioned earlier than look at China's emerging foreign policy thinkers and strategists in their own words. The translation is difficult, as is the fact that the strategic and ideological context is different. But I'm sure that there is - if judiciously edited and marketed - a market for Chinese grand strategic, strategic and operational thinking in America.
Navel-gazin' at its best I believe. Firepower trumps all, no need to understand the psyche of the other when all that's needed is ta pound 'em "fustest with the mustest".
Posted by: YT | May 16, 2010 at 01:43 AM