On December 20, 2025, the 2025 World Politics Academic Annual Conference and the First World Politics Research Award Ceremony were grandly held at the Mingde International Building of Renmin University of China.
The conference was hosted by the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security and the School of International Relations of Renmin University of China, and organized by World Politics Research Center of the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security, Renmin University of China. In addition to scholars from Renmin University of China, the conference attracted more than 20 experts and scholars from numerous universities and research institutions across China, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Fudan University, Jilin University, Nankai University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Central University of Finance and Economics, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, to participate in the discussions.
The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Yang Guangbin, Director-General of the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security and Director-General of the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China. Addresses were delivered by Professor Lin Shangli, Professor at the School of International Relations and former President of Renmin University of China, and Professor Zhang Shuhua, Director of the Institute of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and President of the Chinese Political Science Association.
Professor Lin Shangli, a faculty member of the School of International Relations and former President of Renmin University of China, first extended warm congratulations to the award winners and on the upcoming publication of the three-volume A History of World Politics. He also systematically elaborated on the worldview, methodology and core themes of world politics research.
He pointed out that political science research includes analyses focusing on the national dimension and studies centered on the world dimension, and the two are closely interconnected. The School of International Relations of Renmin University of China has strengthened research and exploration in both dimensions simultaneously, which aligns with the inherent laws of political science itself, the fundamental logic of the world's development today, and the academic vision that China, as a major country, ought to possess.
Professor Lin Shangli emphasized that the four dimensions of Marxism—humankind and humanity, history, forms of social systems, and production and communication—provide the most explanatory framework for interpreting the formation of the contemporary world. These four dimensions are of great significance to the key topics that world politics research must focus on, including scientific socialism, the community with a shared future for mankind, and the four major global initiatives.
Finally, Professor Lin Shangli noted that the research themes of world politics consist of two parts: first, exploring an order for coexistence, and second, realizing development for win-win outcomes. There remain a great many research topics and theoretical issues to be explored in world political science around these two themes.
Zhang Shuhua, Director of the Institute of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and President of the Chinese Political Science Association, extended congratulations on the convening of the 2025 World Political Science Annual Conference and the laureates of the inaugural World Political Science Research Prize, and affirmed Professor Yang Guangbin for pioneering two research approaches: historical political science and world political science.
He pointed out that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese political scientists have shifted from "looking up to" the West to gradually building China's independent knowledge system. In response to the demands of the times, this shift has given rise to a number of emerging disciplines and specialties, forming a Chinese-style disciplinary spectrum of "grand political science".
He suggested that world political science research should stand firm on China's stance, keep the whole world in mind, and focus on six key themes: the holistic historical study of world politics, the theoretical interpretation of world political phenomena, the evolution of world political processes and structures, the ebb and flow of political trends, the comparative study of different political systems, and the research on the regular patterns of world politics.
He reminded that in-depth research should be conducted on the success and failure, rise and fall of major political parties and great powers. He also proposed that China should develop and launch a China-specific evaluation index system for world political development. It is necessary to study and draw lessons from the experience and lessons of governance in other countries, transform from inefficient and high-energy-consuming involutional governance to high-efficiency governance, strive to grasp the developmental regular patterns of world politics and one's own country, and thus forge a development path with Chinese characteristics.
Subsequently, under the chairmanship of Professor Yang Guangbin, the ceremony for the first World Politics Research Award was held at the conference. Award presenters Lin Shangli and Zhang Shuhua presented certificates to the first, second and third prize winners respectively and took group photos with them.
Professor Wang Zhengyi, the first prize winner, Professor Zhang Feian, the second prize winner, and Teacher Wang Xueying, the third prize winner, delivered representative speeches on behalf of the awardees in turn.
The theme of the first roundtable discussion was Theoretical Consciousness and Knowledge Restructuring: Paradigm Exploration in World Politics Research, chaired by Professor Bao Jianyun, Director of the Department of International Politics at the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China. Five experts delivered speeches and answered questions at the session.
Professor Wang Zhengyi, Chair of the Academic Committee at the School of International Relations of Peking University, delivered a speech entitled The Past and Future of World-System Analysis. He stated that World-System Theory and China stands against Eurocentrism and reveals the origins, crises and structural limitations of the capitalist system.
Future research should focus on the following topics: first, reflecting on the epistemic hegemony of Western-centrism and exploring alternative approaches; second, analyzing the profound changes that the world system has undergone since 1945 due to the end of the Cold War and the rise of China; third, studying the restructuring of the world economy by integrating East Asian experiences with the localization of Marxism in China, strengthening research on non-state actors, safeguarding the shared order and realizing common development.
Professor Liu Debin, a professor of History and International Relations at Jilin University, delivered a speech entitled The Transformation of World History after the Cold War: A New Landscape.
Professor Liu Debin pointed out that since the end of World War II, especially the conclusion of the Cold War, the world has undergone a qualitative change based on quantitative accumulations in population, economy, technology, politics, society and other fields. Historic changes have taken place in the core-periphery structures of both the world system and the international system, with emerging non-Western major powers moving into the ranks of core countries. At the same time, a considerable number of Global South countries have embarked on a track of rapid growth, shaking off poverty and backwardness; some have even become developed or upper-middle-income countries. In contrast, growingly distinct divisions have emerged between regions and social classes in Western developed countries, giving rise to the phenomenon of the "Third Worldization" of certain regions and social strata within these developed nations. The global economy, politics and society are experiencing a new round of turbulence, division and restructuring. These historic changes pose new challenges to the study of world politics and also open up broader new prospects for its development.
Professor Liu Debin further noted that historical research and political science research are closely interrelated: they question and promote each other, and together drive the advancement of world politics research.
Professor Li Wei, Vice Dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, delivered a speech entitled Hegemony and World Order.
He argued that the British Empire, relying on the gold standard, its navy, the colonial system, and the "state-market" complex of the East India Company, forced China and other countries into the world system through brute force and coercion, thus establishing the first global international economic order. After World War II, the United States built the second global international economic order through rule-based governance underpinned by six pillars—military power, finance, industry, resources, ideology and institutions, yet this order is now facing a breakdown of norms and values.
He identified three variables—diplomatic leadership, financing capacity and technological innovation—to explain the rise and fall of hegemony. He also pointed out that academic circles must explore fundamental questions bearing on the future trajectory of the international economic order, including whether a global war will recur, whether China can fill the ideological vacuum left by the United States, and how China can lead the Global South to achieve inclusive and shared development.
Professor Zhang Feian from the School of Marxism at Renmin University of China delivered a speech entitled The Cold War and the Evolution of World Political Trends.
She pointed out that during the Cold War, the United States replaced the themes of capitalism versus socialism and imperialism versus anti-imperialism with the democratization theory of "freedom against totalitarianism" and the modernization theory of "tradition against modernity", thus restructuring the history of world politics. The Western left also underwent a transformation from class politics to identity politics and from economic leftism to cultural leftism, becoming implicit defenders of the Western system.
To enhance its soft power today, China must reverse this historical narrative. On the one hand, it needs to clarify its own development path and interpret its real experiences with sound theories. On the other hand, amid the competitive disadvantage in China-US relations, it should win over the Global South through alternative thematic frameworks, and turn discursive construction into a new direction for coexistence and win-win outcomes.
Associate Professor Shi Qipeng, Chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the School of International Relations, Beijing Foreign Studies University, delivered a speech entitled The "Myth of the 16th Century" and the Historical Restatement of World Politics.
He reflected on the Western-centrist narrative that regards 1648 as the starting point of the modern international system, pointing out that it involves chronological exaggeration, spatial parochialism and the denial of non-Western agency. He argued for taking 1500 and even earlier as the "benchmark time" and incorporating the Indian Ocean, the China-India trade network and other entities into global history. In his view, it is necessary to reconstruct the subjectivity and agency of the non-Western world in the evolution of the world order by focusing on the world market, political ideological trends and the order of diverse civilizations.
The theme of the second roundtable discussion was System Evolution and Structural Dynamics: A Macro Perspective on World Politics, chaired by Professor Diao Daming, Director of the Department of Diplomacy at the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China. Five experts delivered speeches and answered questions at the session.
Professor Zhao Kejin from the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University delivered a speech entitled Ecological Logic in World Political Science.
He emphasized that world political science must recover the temporal and spatial dimensions that have been abstracted away by social sciences. The international system is not eternal, and its diverse forms are predicated on an ecological system: ecology is a unity of existence, time and space. Shifts in supply chains amount to ecological changes, and the logic of politics will evolve accordingly. Research should first define ecological types, and then distinguish the superficial logics of power, interests, discourse and other such elements. Ecological logic consists of existence-based formal logic, temporal dialectical logic and spatial yin-yang logic; these three components together form the ecological logic that has long been neglected in the analysis of political phenomena.
Professor Wang Cungang, Director of the Center for the Study of Political Parties and World Politics at the Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University, delivered a speech titled "Moving Downward" and "Moving Upward": Preliminary Reflections on Party-Centered World Politics Research.
He pointed out that the state-centered paradigm that has prevailed since the Cold War can no longer effectively address the changes and challenges of today's world, making it imperative to "move downward" to a party-centered approach. Political parties serve as crucial actors in solving the intractable problems of world politics and constitute a significant driving force for advancing the development of world politics. Meanwhile, efforts should be made to "move upward" to achieve paradigm reconstruction. Grounded in historical materialism, this reconstruction should transcend the national-international dualism and take the agency of political parties as the new central axis for explaining the changes in world politics.
Professor Song Wei, Director of World Politics Research Center of the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security and Professor at the School of International Relations of Renmin University of China, delivered a speech entitled The Framework and Development Space of World Political Science.
He introduced the preliminary research framework for world political science, which aims to break the existing disciplinary boundaries, identify the fundamental driving forces, direct driving forces and causal mechanisms for analyzing the development of world politics, and integrate multiple fundamental driving forces including technological revolution, market competition and struggle for recognition. With the changes in the tri-dimensional structure of power, ideology and interests as the direct driving forces, the evolution of international and domestic orders is propelled through three political struggle mechanisms: power suppression, learning and internalization, and political compromise.
He proposed that world political science research can further advance theoretical studies to identify more fundamental driving forces, direct driving forces and causal mechanisms, and conduct more empirical analyses within the existing research framework.
Associate Researcher Ye Chengcheng from the Institute of International Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences delivered a speech entitled Mechanisms and Explanation in World Politics.
He focused on mechanistic explanation, defining it as a meso-level approach that bridges macro structures and micro actions. He argued that factor thinking identifies key variables while mechanistic thinking presents causal processes; the iterative modeling and verification of these two approaches can overcome the vacuity of black-box explanation and the triviality of narrative description. Researchers can conduct process tracing based on Chinese experiences, abstract comparable models, and test their generalizability in broader contexts. This will provide tools for world politics research and contribute to the construction of an independent knowledge system that embodies both local concerns and universal significance.
Lecturer Wu Di, Secretary-General of the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security and a faculty member of the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, delivered a speech entitled World War II from a World Politics Perspective.
World War II was the outcome of the fierce confrontation guided by a variety of political ideological trends, which exerted a profound influence on the origins and progression of the war. Meanwhile, ideological trends exhibit a certain degree of continuity: the old ideology of imperialism did not recede entirely in the post-war settlement and the reconstruction of the world order, which to a certain extent gave rise to a new round of great power confrontation.
The theme of the third roundtable discussion was Actor Interaction and Global Practice: Decision-Making, Knowledge and Governance, chaired by Professor Cui Shoujun, Director of the Institute of International Development at the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China. Four experts delivered speeches and answered questions at the session.
Professor Yu Haiyang, Vice Dean of the Institute of New Political Parties at Jilin University, delivered a speech entitled The Decline of Bureaucratic Politics and Institutional Changes in Foreign Policy-Making.
Focusing on dimensions such as foreign policy analysis, he analyzed the institutional roots of the chaos in diplomacy, sorted out the historical evolution of the bureaucratic system, and pointed out that "political dominance" is replacing Weberian bureaucratic rationality. Political cycles and administrative cycles are converging, diplomacy is being caught up in the logic of domestic elections, and there is a dual loss of strategic resolve and credibility. The institutional vacuum left by the collapse of the rational bureaucratic system is attracting the infiltration of non-institutional and populist forces, and the long-term stability of the global order is facing persistent erosion.
Associate Professor Wen Yao from the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University delivered a speech entitled The Dissemination of Governance Knowledge in Great Power Competition.
Taking the dissemination of governance knowledge as the entry point to explore great power competition, he criticized the Western dualism of democracy versus authoritarianism and argued that national governance knowledge should be regarded as the basic unit for research, with an in-depth study of the great power political mechanisms underlying the dissemination of governance knowledge. He proposed focusing on the dissemination of governance knowledge as a daily micro-process in the evolution of world ideological trends, examining domestic political changes, the dynamics of international competition and the agency of recipients, so as to provide a new research agenda for understanding great power competition and changes in world politics.
Associate Professor Shi Yue, a tenured faculty member of the School of Foreign Languages at Peking University, delivered a speech entitled A Critical Review of the Historiography of the Russian Empire in the Anglophone Academy in the Post-Cold War Era: Perspectives, Themes and Reflections.
He sorted out the paradigm of the "historiography of the Russian Empire" in the Anglophone academy since the Post-Cold War period. Conceptually, the empire has evolved from a symbol of the Roman universal order through modern transformations into an emblem of postmodern cultural pluralism. In terms of narrative, scholars such as Lieven have framed the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union as a single continuous empire based on three theses—continuity, pluralism and disintegration driven by nationalism—while downplaying the role of revolutions and external factors. He called for a return to an analysis of power, structure and historical context, and for reconstructing the truth about the empire’s disintegration from a global perspective.
Assistant Professor Wang Xueying from the School of Government at Central University of Finance and Economics delivered a speech entitled The International Monetary System and Sovereign Debt.
She pointed out that the structure of the global sovereign debt market has profoundly shaped the domestic, regional and international political and economic landscapes. At the domestic level, this structure has endowed the United States with "debt freedom", allowing it to flexibly use fiscal policies to regulate economic fluctuations. It has also become a major force triggering regime changes in developing countries and driving adjustments to their domestic economic policies. At the regional level, this structure is a key variable for understanding the European sovereign debt crisis and the evolution of EU common bonds. At the international level, it constitutes an important backdrop and underlying cause of periodic debt crises and the global governance deficit.
Professor Huang Yuxing, Deputy Director of World Politics Research Center of the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security, delivered the concluding remarks of the conference and shared three insights: First, the research topics of world politics present multiple levels, including those at the global and regional levels as well as national and subnational levels; second, world politics research and international relations research overlap in terms of topic selection, interpretation and methodology, while also exhibiting differences in these aspects; third, on the basis of addressing the inadequacies of existing theoretical explanations, world politics research can achieve theoretical innovation by exploring new research topics, developing new analytical mechanisms and providing new empirical evidence.
Mr. Lian Chenchao, Secretary-General of World Politics Research Center of the Chenghai Institute, delivered the closing address and extended sincere gratitude to all faculty members and students for their support and participation. The conference concluded successfully in a warm and lively atmosphere.
This conference marks the first annual session since the founding of World Politics Research Center, and the establishment of the World Politics Research Award has also provided a new platform and opportunity for the study of world political science. During the conference, scholars put forward many insightful views and conducted lively discussions, which have enriched the knowledge and theoretical system of world political science and offered valuable insights for the Center's future research directions.