The Evolving Paradigms of Military Interventions and China: Lessons from Global Centre-Periphery Relations

Stekić Nenad (Research Fellow, Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade, Serbia), nenad.stekic@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

Military interventionism, a unilateral and coercive practice in international politics, is widely discussed in scholarly literature. However, key aspects, such as a consolidated definition of military intervention and the complex geographical features involved, remain insufficiently conceptualised. Evidence, including the economic rise of non-Western powers, the politico-military ascendance of Russia and China, and the growing prevalence of asymmetric threats, signals a shift from a unipolar to a multipolar global system. This article examines the extent to which great powers are inclined to intervene in neighbouring regions compared to peripheral areas within different structural contexts of the international system and offers potentially relevant factors to be considered while analysing similar cases that might occur, notwithstanding who is the intervening actor. This research briefly introduces justifications for three past interventions—in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq—to identify the role of geographic positioning in justifying interventionism. This study explores centreperiphery dynamics and factors influencing military interventions. It offers insights into China’s foreign policy behaviour as it manoeuvres its role as a “hesitant hegemon” in the current international system.

Keywords: military interventionism, international system, geopolitics, multipolarity, balancing risks theory, China, great powers, regional security, centre-periphery