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This article offers an in-depth exploration of China's Arctic aspirations, with a specific focus on the development of the Polar Silk Road (PSR), and the ensuing implications for the dynamics of global power. The Arctic region, once considered remote and inaccessible, is undergoing a transformation largely driven by climate change. This transformation is unveiling new opportunities for navigation and resource extraction, thereby attracting the attention of various nations, including China. Despite its geographical distance from the Arctic, China has been vocal about its Arctic aspirations, most notably through its proposed PSR initiative. The article scrutinizes the development of the PSR, a component of China's broader Belt and Road Initiative, and its potential to bolster China's economic prowess by unveiling new trade routes and granting it access to valuable resources. It also discusses the potential implications of China's Arctic ambitions for the balance of power among major powers such as the United States, Russia, and the European Union. Drawing on theories from political science and international relations, including realism, liberalism, and constructivism, the article provides a theoretical lens to understand these dynamics. It underscores the need for careful management of Arctic affairs to ensure that competition does not escalate into conflict. The article concludes by highlighting the need for further research to fully grasp the implications of China's Arctic policy and to explore potential responses by other major powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the number of art museums in China has increased significantly in recent years, art museum educators find it difficult to create relevant, relatable, and engaging learning experiences for children in different contexts of art museums. I conducted this qualitative, comparative case study in Shanghai, China, examining how two different art museums, one contemporary art-based, and another one traditional Chinese art-based, conceptualize museum education for children. The research data included face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with museum educators and a content analysis of documents gathered from the museums' websites. Using the frameworks for the contextual model of learning and constructivism theory in museum learning, I compared and contrasted the two art museums educational approaches in creating connections between educational programming and children's learning. I found that both art museums were able to connect programming to children with their current exhibitions, but using two different approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's burgeoning economic and security activities abroad have given rise to suspicions and criticisms of its intentions. As Buddhism is a shared faith and heritage among many Chinese; an integral part of national identities of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; a proud legacy in India; and a major religion in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan, winning over the trust and friendship of neighboring Buddhist countries has emerged as an important Chinese diplomatic initiative, especially under the current Xi Jinping leadership's enterprise to revive the Silk Road. Having over 245 million Buddhists, 28,000 Buddhist monasteries, 16,000 temples, and 240,000 Buddhist monks and nuns makes the promotion of Buddhism a rich source of soft-power, or "soul power," for China, generated from its heavy investments in building Buddhist institutions and engaging Buddhist groups in these countries. However, there are external and domestic challenges in using Buddhism as a Chinese foreign policy vehicle. The paper analyzes what the objectives of China's Buddhist diplomacy are; which personnel, organizations, or state bureaus in China make China's Buddhist diplomacy; how is it carried out; what the targeted institutions and personnel in the affected countries are; the reactions from these countries; and the extent to which a Communist regime is able to carry out its promotion of Buddhism in Asia despite its professed atheism. The analysis is conducted through the spectrum of two major perspectives in international relations literature: neo-realism and constructivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within international relations theory, there is significant disagreement on the nature and significance of leaders' dispute outcome preferences. While many variants of realism assume that such preferences are relatively fixed and homogeneous, both the liberal and the constructivist schools view them as significant variables. This debate remains unresolved because, for the standard large-sample conflict data sets, there are no direct measures of leadership preferences over outcomes in given types of international disputes. Using a conflict bargaining experiment, we ask whether, after controlling for the effects of relative power and initial conditions, leadership preferences have a statistically significant impact. We use two different country samples--from China and the United States--to examine whether the impact of leadership preferences varies internationally. We find that realist-style preferences are a special rather than a general case, and that such differences have significant implications for understanding continuities and changes in Chinese and US foreign policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilateral relations between China and the United States have evolved over the past two decades from the 'same bed, different dreams' of the 1990s when, despite different interests and perceptions, globalisation and multilateralism drew them closer, to the potential 'different beds, same nightmare' scenario where their economies draw further apart and their governments are locked in hegemonic rivalry. Drawing on Wendtian constructivism and cognitive psychology, this article proposes a systematic and dynamic theoretical framework and a review of the evolution of Sino–US relations to explain how and why the above changes happened. We subdivide Sino–US relations since the early 1990s into five periods that describe the United States' China strategy in four aspects and China's US strategy in three aspects. Our findings are that the United States' China strategy has changed dramatically while China's US strategy has remained relatively stable, and that Sino–US relations from the early 1990s to mid-2010 were characterised by cooperation borne of strategic compatibility, whereas those ensuing were characterised by competition due to strategic incompatibility. We argue that rivalry between the two countries stems from their fundamentally different ideas, namely, Chinese statist nationalism and American liberal hegemony, and that gaps in perception have exacerbated the differences. Simply put, their 'different dreams' have led to the 'same nightmare'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]