'Bounded Ambition', co-authored by Rosemary Foot, published by Cambridge University Press
Rosemary Foot & Xueying Zhang have co-authored Bounded Ambition: China as a Multilateral Actor in World Politics, published by Cambridge University Press
First published online: April 2026
Open Access until 6 May 2026; Print Edition available 14 May 2026
Cambridge Element, Cambridge University Press
Since the 1980s, China has become steadily enmeshed in multilateral international organizations (MIOs). A rich body of rhetoric and behaviour is available to deepen our understanding of why and how Beijing engages with MIOs, additionally allowing a response to the question of whether China's engagement is shifting the global normative landscape in ways that significantly affect the on-going transition in global order. With these aims in mind, this Element first adopts a 'snapshot' macro-analytical perspective that draws on existing scholarship and official documentation to compare two eras of Chinese MIO engagement across several issue areas. The Element next adopts a case-study, process-driven, understanding of China and MIOs, examining the evolution of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It concludes that China, through incremental measures, is fashioning reordering that pushes in similar directions. However, this capacity to effect significant change varies considerably across institutional settings.
