Michael Sampson | Leiden University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Michael Sampson
Information, Communication & Society, 2024
The Chinese Journal of International Politics
China has expressed its dissatisfaction with aspects of the international development finance reg... more China has expressed its dissatisfaction with aspects of the international development finance regime for many years, related to issues such as its lack of voting power and an insufficient focus on infrastructure spending by traditional multilateral development banks. To address these dissatisfactions, China has utilised a range of approaches, from the application of pressure inside existing institutions, to building outside pressure in the form of using alternative institutions or creating new ones. But how has the combination and timing of these different measures impacted its success in ultimately securing reforms? Applying insights from the institutional choice literature, we find that China has pursued both inside and outside measures to try to secure its objectives in development finance with varying degrees of success. Simply combining these measures has been insufficient to secure success however. In cases where China has exerted internal leverage prior to utilising outside o...
International Relations
When a state is dissatisfied with an international institution it has different strategies availa... more When a state is dissatisfied with an international institution it has different strategies available to it to secure change. These strategies are increasingly well understood due to research in the areas of regime complexity and institutional selection. But while there is an understanding of how the structure of a regime can influence the chances of success of different change proposals, there is less clarity on how the content of proposed changes impacts their success. In this article we decompose proposed institutional changes into two sub-types: Status-quo challenging and status-quo enhancing. Status-quo enhancing changes promote reforms that advance the objectives of the existing regime and so serve to drive change that would otherwise be limited by the inertia of existing institutions. Conversely, status-quo challenging changes undermine the stated goals of the existing regime. We develop these sub-types by comparing China’s attempts to secure changes in the global finance and ...
International Relations, 2023
International Relations, 2022
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2022
China has traditionally placed limits on the equity of investors or required that Chinese partner... more China has traditionally placed limits on the equity of investors or required that Chinese partners own a majority interest. 4 European Commission, "Key Elements of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement."
Chatham House Briefing Paper, 2021
International Politics, 2021
International Affairs Review, 2015
His research focuses on the strategic and distributional implications of international contracts.... more His research focuses on the strategic and distributional implications of international contracts. As a result he writes on Chinese trade contracts and the international political economy of East Asia more broadly. He has also written on 19th century Anglo-American diplomacy and published on cooperation theory with Oxford University Press. He holds a first class honors degree in politics from the University of Bristol and an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.
The Pacific Review, 2019
There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the ... more There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific has crucial strategic and economic implications for states in the region. Yet despite the recognition that China's agreements are initially limited and then expanded substantially over time, few accounts explore the strategic and economic implications of this aspect of China's approach. This article addresses this flaw by drawing attention to the relation between regional power dynamics and China's gradualist approach to negotiating regional trade agreements. It presents a new framework which suggests that due to China's steadily improving economic position visa -vis its regional counterparts and the growing economic dependence of these partners on it, China's negotiating approach increases opportunities to maximize its growing bargaining leverage and influence over time and thereby improve its regional position still further. This article concludes by drawing out the implications of this for the region.
The Pacific Review, 2019
There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the ... more There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific has crucial strategic and economic implications for states in the region. Yet despite the recognition that China's agreements are initially limited and then expanded substantially over time, few accounts explore the strategic and economic implications of this aspect of China's approach. This article addresses this flaw by drawing attention to the relation between regional power dynamics and China's gradualist approach to negotiating regional trade agreements. It presents a new framework which suggests that due to China's steadily improving economic position vis-a-vis its regional counterparts and the growing economic dependence of these partners on it, China's negotiating approach increases opportunities to maximize its growing bargaining leverage and influence over time and thereby improve its regional position still further. This article concludes by drawing out the implications of this for the region.
Oxford Bibliographies, 2017
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, 2017
International Affairs Review, 2015
Information, Communication & Society, 2024
The Chinese Journal of International Politics
China has expressed its dissatisfaction with aspects of the international development finance reg... more China has expressed its dissatisfaction with aspects of the international development finance regime for many years, related to issues such as its lack of voting power and an insufficient focus on infrastructure spending by traditional multilateral development banks. To address these dissatisfactions, China has utilised a range of approaches, from the application of pressure inside existing institutions, to building outside pressure in the form of using alternative institutions or creating new ones. But how has the combination and timing of these different measures impacted its success in ultimately securing reforms? Applying insights from the institutional choice literature, we find that China has pursued both inside and outside measures to try to secure its objectives in development finance with varying degrees of success. Simply combining these measures has been insufficient to secure success however. In cases where China has exerted internal leverage prior to utilising outside o...
International Relations
When a state is dissatisfied with an international institution it has different strategies availa... more When a state is dissatisfied with an international institution it has different strategies available to it to secure change. These strategies are increasingly well understood due to research in the areas of regime complexity and institutional selection. But while there is an understanding of how the structure of a regime can influence the chances of success of different change proposals, there is less clarity on how the content of proposed changes impacts their success. In this article we decompose proposed institutional changes into two sub-types: Status-quo challenging and status-quo enhancing. Status-quo enhancing changes promote reforms that advance the objectives of the existing regime and so serve to drive change that would otherwise be limited by the inertia of existing institutions. Conversely, status-quo challenging changes undermine the stated goals of the existing regime. We develop these sub-types by comparing China’s attempts to secure changes in the global finance and ...
International Relations, 2023
International Relations, 2022
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2022
China has traditionally placed limits on the equity of investors or required that Chinese partner... more China has traditionally placed limits on the equity of investors or required that Chinese partners own a majority interest. 4 European Commission, "Key Elements of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement."
Chatham House Briefing Paper, 2021
International Politics, 2021
International Affairs Review, 2015
His research focuses on the strategic and distributional implications of international contracts.... more His research focuses on the strategic and distributional implications of international contracts. As a result he writes on Chinese trade contracts and the international political economy of East Asia more broadly. He has also written on 19th century Anglo-American diplomacy and published on cooperation theory with Oxford University Press. He holds a first class honors degree in politics from the University of Bristol and an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.
The Pacific Review, 2019
There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the ... more There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific has crucial strategic and economic implications for states in the region. Yet despite the recognition that China's agreements are initially limited and then expanded substantially over time, few accounts explore the strategic and economic implications of this aspect of China's approach. This article addresses this flaw by drawing attention to the relation between regional power dynamics and China's gradualist approach to negotiating regional trade agreements. It presents a new framework which suggests that due to China's steadily improving economic position visa -vis its regional counterparts and the growing economic dependence of these partners on it, China's negotiating approach increases opportunities to maximize its growing bargaining leverage and influence over time and thereby improve its regional position still further. This article concludes by drawing out the implications of this for the region.
The Pacific Review, 2019
There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the ... more There is a widespread consensus that China's growing network of regional trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific has crucial strategic and economic implications for states in the region. Yet despite the recognition that China's agreements are initially limited and then expanded substantially over time, few accounts explore the strategic and economic implications of this aspect of China's approach. This article addresses this flaw by drawing attention to the relation between regional power dynamics and China's gradualist approach to negotiating regional trade agreements. It presents a new framework which suggests that due to China's steadily improving economic position vis-a-vis its regional counterparts and the growing economic dependence of these partners on it, China's negotiating approach increases opportunities to maximize its growing bargaining leverage and influence over time and thereby improve its regional position still further. This article concludes by drawing out the implications of this for the region.
Oxford Bibliographies, 2017
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, 2017
International Affairs Review, 2015