Dynamics of Ideological Competition
The Department of Political Science is excited to welcome Dr. Jessica Chen Weiss of Johns Hopkins University to deliver the 2025 Mark Zacher Distinguished Speaker Lecture. Dr. Weiss will deliver a separate talk to the Department’s faculty members and graduate students on March 10, before the public lecture on March 11.
Lunch will be served at 12pm in Buchanan C403. The lecture will start at 12:15pm in Buchanan Penthouse and wrap up by 1:45pm.
Details for joining by Zoom will be made available to those who RSVP.
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ABOUT THE TALK
What precisely is ideological competition, and how should one understand its components and dynamics? Existing studies of ideology in international relations tend to treat ideological differences as relatively fixed variables that exacerbate frictions between great powers. Instead, we treat ideological competition as multi-dimensional and dynamic.
We identify three salient components of ideological competition: (1) content—whether states their ideology is particular to their own history and culture, or universally applicable; (2) preferences—whether states seek to promote their ideology abroad through attraction, enticement, or coercion; and (3) perceptions—how states perceive the rival’s own ideological content and preferences.
Using this framework, we argue that even states of differing domestic ideologies can peacefully coexist when their preferences for shaping the international ideological orders are mutually restrained. To illustrate, we trace the making and unraveling of the US-Soviet détente during the Cold War in the 1970s.
We find that states’ preferences for international ideological orders are not static but evolving, and conflict from ideological differences is not given but made. We conclude with implications for US-China relations today.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jessica Chen Weiss is the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and nonresident senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute Center for China Analysis. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as senior advisor to the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars (IAF-TIRS). Weiss is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014).