Richardson, Derek2009-04-292009-04-2920082009-04-29http://hdl.handle.net/1828/1388This report is an investigation of the strategic mentality of the Chinese government during the current U.S.-led unipolar world. It aims to determine whether this mentality is prone to challenge American predominance and reject the dominant rules, values, and structure of the interstate system or is willing to cooperate and accept the U.S. hegemony and the current status-quo of the global community. To understand the Chinese strategic mindset, this report examines China’s strategic culture, political reliance on nationalism, and unique perceptions of the threats and opportunities in the international environment. These three factors each possess contrastive motivations that encourage the Chinese leadership to adopt policies that both accept and reject the current unipolar world. Such dualistic factors mould a contrastive strategic mentality amongst the Chinese leadership that, while overly antagonistic towards the structure and certain values of the current interstate system, is willing to adopt both revisionist and status-quo foreign policies.enAvailable to the World Wide WebnationalismculturepoliticsgovernmentUVic Subject Index::Humanities and Social Sciences::Political Science::Public administrationThesis