The impact of global value chains on the international system from the perspective of uneven and combined development: The case of China

Today just like yesterday, changing power relations between states is one of the most discussed topics of international relations. These discussions generally concentrate around the issues of conflict, cooperation and competition. By putting these issues to the centre, the topic of this thesis is the impact of global value chains on international relations and international system. The main argument of this thesis is that the social relations re-arranged especially by the global value chains are behind China's effect on current international system and hence there is a necessity to go beyond the discussions around conflict and power. This thesis employs unequal and combined development perspective so as to display this impact and analyses the impact of advantage of backwardness and disadvantage of forwardness on the international system and state behaviour through the case of China.