The International Landscape from the Perspective of the Philosophy of History

For a country to achieve development, broadly speaking, it must properly handle internal affairs and actively establish foreign relations. The former concerns its own development path, direction, strategy, and methods, in order to consolidate strength, reach consensus, and gather developmental momentum; the latter aims to create a favorable external environment and obtain external support. As history transforms into world history, countries around the world increasingly become an interconnected, mutually influencing, and interacting whole. If in Marx’s era this global interconnection was merely a trend, then after the imperialist era of capital export in the early 20th century and the era of globalization in the latter half of the 20th century, a country’s development today is inseparable from the global landscape. Internal development affects a country’s expectations of the world, while the global landscape exerts multifaceted influences on internal development. It is in this sense that General Secretary Xi Jinping repeatedly emphasizes the need to coordinate the two overall situations of domestic and international affairs, firmly grasp the main line of serving national rejuvenation and promoting human progress, advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and construct a new type of international relations. History constructs the present, and the future influences the current moment. From the perspective of the philosophy of history, it is increasingly necessary to examine the current global landscape and position the international relations within the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Professor Han Zhen’s new work, *Great Power Games and the Future World: International Relations from the Perspective of the Philosophy of History* (Central Party School Press, 2022), uses the lens of the philosophy of history to examine the current world landscape within the trinity of history, the present, and the future, exploring the global positioning of the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The book consists of eight chapters and a conclusion. The specific chapter titles are as follows. Chapter 1: Centennial Changes and China’s New Development Pattern; Chapter 2: The North-South Divide; Chapter 3: The East-West Balance; Chapter 4: Competition between Capitalism and Socialism; Chapter 5: Geopolitical Wrestling; Chapter 6: The Great China-U.S. Game; Chapter 7: Future World Development Trends; Chapter 8: The Humanistic Foundation for Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind; Conclusion: Gathering China’s Strength for National Rejuvenation and a Better World. As the titles indicate, this is a work integrating philosophy, history, and international relations. Closely adhering to the theme of national rejuvenation, it conducts a distinctive exploration of the global landscape and international relations facing China’s social development, offering academic significance and practical value for our understanding of the current transformation.

一个国家若想实现发展，从大的方面来说，无外乎要妥善处理内政、积极建立外交，前者涉及自身的发展道路、发展方向、发展策略和发展方式，以凝聚力量，达成共识，汇聚发展动力，后者则是为形成良好外部环境，获取外部支持力量。随着历史向世界历史的转变，世界各国会越来越成为一个相互联系、相互影响、相互作用的整体。如果说在马克思的时代，这种世界联系还仅体现为一种趋势的话，那么，经过20世纪初资本输出的帝国主义时代、20世纪后半期的全球化时代，如今一个国家的发展已经离不开全球格局，内部的发展影响着一个国家对全球的期待，全球格局对内部的发展又产生着多方面的影响。正是在这个意义上，习近平总书记反复强调，要统筹国内国际两个大局，牢牢把握住服务民族复兴、促进人类进步这条主线，推进构建人类命运共同体，建构新型国际关系。历史建构着现在，未来又影响着当下，从历史哲学的视域来透视当下的全球格局，定位中国特色社会主义建设中的国际关系，越来越有必要。韩震教授的新著《大国博弈与未来世界——历史哲学视域中的国际关系》（中共中央党校出版社2022年版），以历史哲学的眼光，在历史、当下与未来的三位一体中，透视当前的世界格局，探索中国特色社会主义建设的全球区位。全书共分八章和结束语。具体章节标题如下。第一章：百年变局与中国新发展格局；第二章：南北分野；第三章：东西论衡；第四章：资本主义与社会主义的竞争；第五章：地缘政治角力；第六章：中美大博弈；第七章：未来世界发展趋势；第八章：构建人类命运共同体的人文基础；结束语：为民族复兴和美好世界凝聚中国力量。从标题可以看出，这是一本融哲学、历史、国际关系于一体的著作，紧扣民族复兴主题，对中国社会发展面临的全球格局和国际关系，进行了富有自身特色的探索，对于我们理解当前的变局，具有学术意义和实践价值。

First, the book adopts the grand historical perspective of the philosophy of history, treating history, the present, and the future as a whole to examine the global landscape and international relations facing China’s development. Professor Han Zhen is an expert in the philosophy of history. The philosophy of history in the modern sense emerged with the process of history transforming into world history. Hegel’s *Philosophy of History* explored the unfolding of the absolute spirit in world history amidst this historical transformation. Marx critically inherited and developed Hegel’s philosophy of history, revealing the formation, development, and future direction of world history from the perspective of the development of productive forces and capitalism. He treated history, the present, and the future as a whole to examine the development process of individual countries and their positioning in world history, grasping their internal logic and international impact.

第一，全书以历史哲学的大历史观，将历史、当下与未来作为一个整体，考察中国发展面临的全球格局与国际关系。韩震教授是研究历史哲学的专家，现代意义上的历史哲学是随着历史向世界历史转变的过程产生的，黑格尔的《历史哲学》就是在这样的历史转变中去探索绝对精神在世界历史中展现的过程。马克思批判、继承和发展了黑格尔的历史哲学思想，从生产力与资本主义发展的视角揭示了世界历史的形成、发展与未来走向，将历史、当下与未来作为一个整体来考察，去探索个别国家的发展进程及其在世界历史中的定位，把握其发展的内在逻辑与国际影响。

The author of *Great Power Games and the Future World* is well-versed in the intrinsic connection between world history and international relations, which gives the book’s discussion its own characteristics. First, it emphasizes the wholeness of history, the present, and the future—a wholeness constructed through the interweaving of time and space. To examine a country and its mode of international interaction, one must look not only at its present but also at its past and future expectations. The author’s discussion of geopolitical wrestling proceeds from this perspective. “Although geopolitics has some objective geographical basis, geopolitical activities are often continuously adjusted with changes in countries’ economic, political, and military power; thus, geopolitics is a relationship that constantly changes with the situation” (p. 103). Using this principle, the author specifically analyzes the attitudes of neighboring countries toward China, including Russia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, North and South Korea, India, Pakistan, Central Asian countries and Mongolia, and Afghanistan. In the specific analysis, the author links history with the present and examines the future development of these countries. Within this perspective, cultural factors become an important basis for discussing international relations, which is the second important characteristic of the book. Culture can be said to be the soul of a country. When a culture is not under pressure or challenge, it shapes the behavior of a country and its people by inertia. Discussing a country’s policies inevitably involves its soul, i.e., its culture. The author’s discussion of North-South and East-West relations includes cultural analysis as an important component. Analyzing modern ideological content on the basis of cultural analysis allows for a deeper understanding of the underlying issues in international relations. Huntington’s *The Clash of Civilizations* also profoundly influenced international relations theory from this dimension.

《大国博弈与未来世界》一书的作者深谙世界历史与国际关系的内在联系，这使得本书的讨论体现出自身特点。一是强调历史、当下与未来的整体性，这是一种时空交错而建构起来的整体。考察一个国家、考察一个国家的国际交往方式，不仅要看这个国家的当下，更要看其过去以及未来的期待，作者关于地缘政治角力的讨论，就是从这样的视角入手的。“地缘政治尽管有一些地理空间上的客观基础，但是，地缘政治活动往往随着各国经济、政治、军事力量的变化而不断调整，因而地缘政治是随着形势不断变化而变化的关系。”（第103页）以此为原则，作者具体分析了俄罗斯、东南亚国家联盟、日本、朝鲜与韩国、印度、巴基斯坦、中亚各国与蒙古国、阿富汗等周边国家对于中国的态度。在具体分析中，作者将历史与当下联系起来，考察这些国家的未来发展，在这样的视角中，文化的因素随之成为讨论国际关系的重要基础，这是本书第二个重要特点。文化可以说是一个国家的灵魂，一种文化在没有受到挤压和挑战时，会按照惯性塑造着一个国家、一个民族的行为方式。讨论一个国家的政策，不可避免地会涉及其灵魂即文化。作者关于南北关系、东西关系的讨论，文化的分析是其重要内容。在文化分析的基础上讨论现代意识形态的内容，更能看透国际关系的深层问题。亨廷顿《文明的冲突》也是在这样的维度上对国际关系学说产生了深刻影响。

Second, it adheres to the method of contradiction analysis, grasping the deep-seated issues in the pattern of international relations. The law of contradiction is the fundamental content of dialectics. Understanding the development of things requires grasping their internal contradictions, and the same applies to understanding international relations and the global landscape. As the book emphasizes on its cover: “The world always develops in the movement of contradictions; without contradictions, there is no world.” Starting from the method of contradiction analysis, the author’s discussion particularly focuses on the following aspects. First, proceeding from the contradictory movement of productive forces and relations of production, and the economic base and superstructure, it focuses on the internal contradictions of relevant countries in international relations. For example, when discussing the competition between capitalism and socialism, the author analyzes the nature of capital and its manifestations in contemporary society from the perspective of the internal contradictions of capitalist society, pointing out that ideological debates, arms races, and the international strategies of developed countries are actually influenced by their internal contradictions. The alliances of developed countries and their targeted strategies are also a way for these countries to resolve internal contradictions. For instance, the internal economic crisis, political crisis, identity crisis, social crisis, cultural crisis, and national image crisis within the United States (pp. 167-173) determine America’s current choices and its approach to international issues. Second, it grasps the principal contradiction, analyzing the various major forces in the current international landscape from the perspective of contradictions between countries. The author discusses the power patterns in the evolution of several different civilizations. For example, in East-West relations, with the rise of economic strength, Asian, African, and Latin American countries have gained more cultural autonomy, thereby changing the discrimination and suppression of Western developed countries; in the North-South contradiction, developing countries represented by China demand the establishment of a more just international order to achieve common development; in the competitive relationship between socialism and capitalism, some developed countries go to great lengths to smear and suppress socialist countries, attempting to restore the control of the Cold War era; and so on. The analysis of the above forces constitutes an important part of the book’s discussion of international relations and also reflects the author’s theoretical insight in delineating the global landscape from the perspective of contradictions.

第二，坚持矛盾分析方法，抓住国际关系格局中的深层问题。矛盾规律是辩证法的根本内容，理解事物的发展就是要抓住事物的内在矛盾，理解国际关系和全球格局同样如此。正如本书在封面所强调的：“世界总是在矛盾运动中发展的，没有矛盾就没有世界。”从矛盾分析方法出发，作者的讨论特别关注以下方面：一是从生产力与生产关系、经济基础和上层建筑的矛盾运动出发，关注国际关系中相关国家的内在矛盾。如在谈到资本主义和社会主义的竞争时，作者从资本主义社会内在矛盾出发，分析了资本的本性及其在当代社会的表现形式，指出意识形态的争论、军备竞赛以及发达国家的国际战略，实际上都受到其内部矛盾的影响。发达国家的结盟和相关的针对性战略，也是这些国家解决内部矛盾的一种方式。如美国内部的经济危机、政治危机、认同危机、社会危机、文化危机、国家形象危机等（第167—173页），就决定了美国当下的选择和面对国际问题的处理方式。二是抓住主要矛盾，从国家间的矛盾出发，分析当前国际格局中的各种主要力量。作者讨论了几种不同文明形态演进中的力量格局。如在东西关系中，伴随着经济实力上升，亚非拉国家获得了更多文化自主权，从而改变了西方发达国家的歧视与压制；在南北矛盾中，以中国为代表的发展中国家，要求建立更加公正的国际关系，从而实现共同发展；在社会主义与资本主义的竞争关系中，一些发达国家极力抹黑、压制社会主义国家，企图恢复冷战时代的控制权；等等。对上述力量的分析，构成了本书讨论国际关系的重要内容，也体现了作者从矛盾出发来界划全球格局的理论透视力。

On the basis of analyzing the above-mentioned power comparisons, the author conducts a macro-level analysis of the game between China and the United States. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has become the sole superpower. How to maintain this position constitutes the fundamental theme of U.S. international strategy, and the contradictions and games between China and the United States also revolve around this fundamental theme. With the development of China’s economy, especially after China became the world’s second-largest economy, the United States believes that China poses the main threat to U.S. hegemony in the current pattern of international relations. This mentality is precisely the result of structural changes in the balance of power between the two sides. Some international strategies led by the United States, such as the “Indo-Pacific Strategy,” are their habitual way of addressing problems arising from changes in the balance of national power.

在分析上述各种力量对比的基础上，作者对中美之间的博弈进行了宏观层面的分析。自1991年苏联解体之后，美国成为唯一的超级大国，如何保持这一地位，构成了美国国际战略的根本主题，中美之间的矛盾与博弈也是围绕着这一根本主题而展开的。随着中国经济的发展，特别是当中国成为世界第二大经济体后，美国认为中国构成了当前国际关系格局中美国霸权的主要威胁。这一心态，正是双方力量对比发生结构性变化的结果。美国主导的一些国际战略，如“印太战略”等，就是他们面对国家力量对比变化解决问题的习惯方式。

Third, the world-historical significance of a community with a shared future for mankind. In Marx’s view, as history transforms into world history, the capitalist society driven by capital increasingly becomes a world-historical existence, and the basic contradictions and class antagonisms of capitalist society also become increasingly world-historical. In this sense, the emancipation of the proletariat depends on revolution in the world-historical sense. The “community” that Marx emphasizes is a new type of social relational structure. It is an association of free individuals, within which individuals are in a state of free and all-round development, people consciously use their individual labor power as social labor power, and external alien forces are under people’s conscious and planned control. It can be said that such a community is the ideal society that transcends the contradictions of capitalist society. Marx’s ideas of “community” and “association of free individuals” constitute an important foundation for the theory of a community with a shared future for mankind.

第三，人类命运共同体的世界历史意义。在马克思看来，随着历史向世界历史转变，以资本驱动的资本主义社会日益成为世界历史性的存在，资本主义社会的基本矛盾和阶级对抗也日益世界历史化，无产阶级的解放在这个意义上有赖于世界历史意义上的革命。马克思所强调的“共同体”是一种新型的社会关系结构。它是一种自由人联合体，在这个联合体内，个人处于自由而全面发展的状态，人们自觉地把个人的劳动力当作社会劳动力来使用，外部异己力量处于人的有意识有计划的控制之下。可以说，这样的共同体才是走出资本主义社会矛盾的理想社会。马克思的“共同体”“自由人联合体”等思想，构成了人类命运共同体理论的重要基础。

If the current global landscape and international relations are governed by the principle of contradiction in the balance of forces, then the high-level way to solve problems is to leap out of the existing problem structure, examine current issues from a higher perspective, and propose future-oriented solutions. It is precisely in this context that a community with a shared future for mankind is proposed. On the one hand, this thought develops Marx’s ideas of world history and community; on the other hand, it incorporates concepts such as “harmony” and “the golden mean” from traditional Chinese culture. This is a perspective that leaps out of existing contradictions and conflicts and a way of thinking that solves problems from a higher level. It is also in this sense that this book regards building a community with a shared future for mankind as China’s fundamental plan for solving international relations problems when facing a “future society.”

如果说目前的全球格局与国际关系被力量对比这一矛盾原则所规定，那么高水平的解决问题方式就是跳出现有问题结构，从更高层面来审视当前问题，提出面向未来的解决方案，而人类命运共同体正是在这样的语境中提出的。这一思想一方面发展了马克思的世界历史与共同体思想，另一方面又融入了中国传统文化中的“和”“中庸”等理念。这是一种跳出现有矛盾与冲突的视域，站在更高层面解决问题的思路。也正是在这个意义上，本书将构建人类命运共同体作为中国面向“未来社会”时解决国际关系问题的根本方案。

Analyzing problems is for the purpose of establishing the thinking and conviction to solve them. Through an analysis of the global development landscape and international relations in the context of globalization, the author emphasizes a pragmatic way of solving problems, advocating that we must both see the developmental capacity that developed capitalist countries still possess and, at the same time, see the problems they face and the characteristics and advantages of China’s social development, so as to establish our struggle strategy and grasp the rhythm of struggle, thereby enhancing historical confidence and seizing historical initiative. To be a conscious historical subject is both the fundamental theme of the philosophy of history and the rational self-awareness we must strive to achieve when facing the global landscape.

分析问题是为了确立解决问题的思路和信念。通过对全球发展格局与全球化情境中国际关系的分析，作者强调一种务实的解决问题方式，主张既要看到当前发达资本主义国家仍然具有的发展能力，同时又要看到他们面临的问题、中国社会发展的特点与优势，从而确立我们的斗争策略，把握斗争节奏，以便增强历史自信，把握历史主动性。做一个自觉的历史主体，这既是历史哲学的根本主题，也是面对全球格局时我们要力求达到的理性自识。

Web editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗