A/Prof. Chengxin Pan1
1University Of Macau, Macao
Biography:
Chengxin Pan is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Macau, Adjunct Associate Professor at UTS, and Honorary Associate Professor at Deakin University. He is the author of Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics: Western Representations of China’s Rise, and a co-editor of China's Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory. He has published in European Journal of International Relations, Millennium, Review of International Studies, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Australian Journal of Politics and History, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, and The Pacific Review, among others.
Abstract:
Carl Schmitt insists that the political is about the existential distinction between friend and enemy. In international relations (IR), however, I argue that the political has much to do with recognising the whole, its parts, and their relationship. The concept of whole-part relations has rarely been examined in IR, but such relations (e.g., the relations between the world economy and a national economy, between a region and a country within that region, or even between a major power and its smaller neighbour) are part and parcel of international relations. To better understand this type of relationship and how it is relevant to Australia-China relations, this paper draws on the conceptual framework of quantum holography, an idea inspired by theoretical physicist David Bohm. Quantum holography argues that parts, as well as making up the whole, also emerge out of the whole, implying that the ‘autonomy’ or ‘sovereignty’ of parts is an illusion and that the proper functioning of parts depends on a healthy relationship with their whole(s). Mainstream IR treats states as separate, independent billiard balls, whose relationship is primarily about power competition under anarchy, thus downplaying the whole-part entanglement. Quantum holography’s approach to whole-part relations challenges the mainstream worldview, and argues that all states, as parts, are constituted by their wholes and thus need to treat their regions and major neighbours not as competing parts, but as wholes upon which they depend. Australia’s recent China policy has failed precisely on this front.