Shiping Tang
Biographic Data
| ID | 4085396 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shiping Tang |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shiping |
| FAMILY NAME | Tang |
| SIGNATURE | TANG S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Fudan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2038-2598 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 135 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The empirical evidence of audience costs theory: A quasi-meta-analysis of case evidence based on Bayesian logic
James Fearon’s “Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes” is arguably one of the most influential articles in International Relations. This article takes stock of the enterprise of audience costs theory (ACT) by providing a “quasi-meta-analysis” of the case studies (QMACS) for ACT based on an explicit Bayesian logic. I show that overall evidence for ACT has been quite thin, whereas evidence against it has been qui…
The Political Logic of the Developmental State: Causes of Hits and Misses in China’s Industrial Policies
Two logics of experiment in biology & medicine: Mechanistic/pathway versus populational
Niche construction to social sciences: Can It Help
Interpretative structural modeling to social sciences: Designing better datasets for mixed method research
Neoclassical Realism: Methodological Critiques and Remedies
The debate on how neoclassical realism (NCR) has fared as a new brand of realism and supposedly a more rigorous approach towards foreign policy has become increasingly acerbic. Most NCR critics have challenged NCR’s epistemological positions, and few have scrutinised NCR’s methodological practice. This essay seeks to fill the void and focuses on the latter. My aim is both critical and constructive. Because NCR’s mainstay method is comparative cas…
The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development
The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development
Institutions matter for economic development. Yet despite this accepted wisdom, new institutional economics has yet to provide a comprehensive look at what constitutes the institutional foundation of economic development (IFED). Bringing together findings from a range a fields, from development economics and development studies to political science and sociology, this book explores the precise mechanisms through which institutions affect growth. …
Institutional Foundation of Economic Development
The Rupture of Revolutionary Coalition After Color Revolution: The Semi-Negative Case Comparison of Egypt and Tunisia
The formation of revolutionary coalition is the key to the success of colour revolutions. However, the regime overthrown by the coalition is always followed by the dissolution of such revolutionary coalition, and some members of the coalition will provoke violent internecine. The article addresses the root cause of the violent rupture of revolutionary coalition after the colour revolution. The authors argue that the revolutionary coalition collap…
On Social Evolution: Phenomenon and Paradigm
Tang provides a coherent and systematic exploration of social evolution as a phenomenon and as a paradigm. He critically builds on existing discussions on social evolution, while drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including archaeology, evolutionary anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, the philosophy of social sciences, and evolutionary biology. Clarifying the relationship between biological evolution and social evolution…
China and the Future International Order(s)
In this essay I survey the key themes within China's discourse on international order, especially how China views its position and role in shaping the existing and future order. I go on to explore the possible implications of China's thinking and actions toward the existing international order. I conclude that overall, China sees no need for and hence does not seek fundamental transformation, but rather piecemeal modification of the existing orde…
The Future of International Order(s)
The shockwaves of Brexit, Trump, and the rise of ethno-nationalism in the West on one hand, and the rise of non-Western countries on the other, pose challenging questions for the future of the exis
Location, Location, Location: The Ethno-Geography of Oil and the Onset of Ethnic War
Does Oil Cause Ethnic War? Comparing Evidence from Process-tracing with Quantitative Results
This article contributes both empirically and methodologically. Empirically, we seek to advance our understanding of an important puzzle: does oil cause ethnic war? Methodologically, we seek to identify more precisely the different weaknesses and strengths of the quantitative approach and case studies with process-tracing by explicitly comparing results from these two approaches on the same empirical question. We thus subject the statistical asso…
Order: A Conceptual Analysis
Practical Concerns and Power Considerations
Journal Article Practical Concerns and Power Considerations Get access Shiping Tang Shiping Tang FUDAN University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Studies Review, Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2016, Pages 162–163, https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viv035 Published: 02 March 2016
The Onset of Ethnic War: A General Theory
This article develops a general theory regarding the onset of ethnic war, starting with two analytic innovations: a mechanism-based approach toward social facts and an emphasis on dynamic interactions. I deploy two meta-mechanisms - the security dilemma/spiral model and intergroup-intragroup interactions - as meta-synthesizers. I then bring together the numerous factors and mechanisms scattered in the literature into a more integrative and dynami…
The Social Evolution of International Politics
Deploying an original “Social Evolution Paradigm (SEP)” and drawing from archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and international relations, this book advances a sweeping account for the systemic transformation of international politics. More specifically, the book shows how the nasty and brutish Hobbesian/offensive realism world many of us take for granted had evolved from an Eden-like paradise; how the Hobbesian world had self-transfo…
Outline of a New Theory of Attribution in IR: Dimensions of Uncertainty and Their Cognitive Challenges
Four internal dimensions (capability, intention, interest, and resolve) and one external dimension (the strategic environment, broadly speaking) are indispensable for us to make sense of others’ behavior. This article outlines a new theory of behavioral attribution in IR. Specifically, each of the five dimensions independently poses different challenges for our cognition, and interaction of the five dimensions poses an even formidable challenge f…
America’s military interventionism: A social evolutionary interpretation
By synthesizing material forces with ideational forces more organically via a social evolutionary approach, we advance a deeper understanding about post-World War II American military interventionism. We argue that post-World War II American military interventionism — that is, the American elites’ and public’s support for America’s military intervention abroad — cannot be understood with ideational or psychological forces alone. Rather, two cruci…
A New Unsupervised Approach to Word Segmentation
This article proposes ESA, a new unsupervised approach to word segmentation. ESA is an iterative process consisting of 3 phases: Evaluation, Selection, and Adjustment. In Evaluation, both certainty and uncertainty of character sequence co-occurrence in corpora are considered as the statistical evidence supporting goodness measurement. Additionally, the statistical data of character sequences with various lengths become comparable with each other …
The security dilemma and ethnic conflict: Toward a dynamic and integrative theory of ethnic conflict
I critically examine the existing literature on the security dilemma in ethnic conflict, thus laying part of the foundation for constructing a dynamic and integrative theory of ethnic conflict. I show that many attempts to apply the security dilemma to the understanding of ethnic conflict have been based on an imprecise and often mistaken understanding of the concept. I then emphasise that the security dilemma theory and the broader spiral model …
Reconciliation and the Remaking of Anarchy
For years, mainstream international relations (IR) theorists have essentially ignored reconciliation as a special—and perhaps the most difficult—form of cooperation building in international politics. This review article seeks to make the study of reconciliation a more visible field for further inquiry in IR, comparative politics, and sociology for both theoretical and practical reasons. After summarizing important themes emerged from the recent …
A Theory of Security Strategy for Our Time: Defensive Realism
This book advances a coherent statement of defensive realism as a theory of strategy for our time and adds to our understanding of defensive realism as a grand theory of IR in particular and our under
The Security Dilemma: A Conceptual Analysis
Critically building upon the work of Herbert Butterfield, John Herz, and Robert Jervis, this article advances a more rigorous definition of the security dilemma. It demonstrates critical implications of the rigorously redefined concept. It examines several influential extensions and expansions of the original concept, showing that most have been inaccurate and misleading, and proposes remedies for correcting the mistakes. Finally, it identifies s…
Reputation, Cult of Reputation, and International Conflict
Building on recent scholarship on reputation in international politics, this article argues that, because reputation for resolve cannot form in international conflicts due to anarchy, politicians' persistent belief in the value of reputation for resolve is merely a cult of reputation. After outlining the logic of the cult and an operational code derived from it, this article examines the pattern of influence that the cult has exerted on state beh…
Fear in International Politics: Two Positions
There are two—and only two—fundamental positions on how to cope with the fear that is derived from the uncertainty over others’ intentions in international relations (IR) literature. Because these two positions cannot be deduced from other bedrock assumptions within the different IR approaches, the two positions should be taken as an additional bedrock assumption. The first position, held by offensive realism, insists that states should assume th…
China and the Future International Order(s)
In this essay I survey the key themes within China's discourse on international order, especially how China views its position and role in shaping the existing and future order. I go on to explore the possible implications of China's thinking and actions toward the existing international order. I conclude that overall, China sees no need for and hence does not seek fundamental transformation, but rather piecemeal modification of the existing orde…
Reconciliation and the Remaking of Anarchy
For years, mainstream international relations (IR) theorists have essentially ignored reconciliation as a special—and perhaps the most difficult—form of cooperation building in international politics. This review article seeks to make the study of reconciliation a more visible field for further inquiry in IR, comparative politics, and sociology for both theoretical and practical reasons. After summarizing important themes emerged from the recent …
Taking Stock of Neoclassical Realism
Within contemporary realism literature, neoclassical realism, which seeks to combine both structural and domestic variables to explain state behaviors, has been where the action is (Sterling-Folker 1997; Rose 1998; Introduction, this volume). Admitting structural realism's notion that structure is an important factor for shaping state behavior, neoclassical realism adds a new assumption: structural impact has to be relayed to state behavior via d…
Social evolution of international politics: From Mearsheimer to Jervis
I advance an endogenous explanation for the systemic transformation of international politics and offer to neatly resolve the debate between offensive realism and defensive realism through a social evolutionary approach. I contend that international politics has always been an evolutionary system and it has evolved from an offensive realism world to a defensive realism world. Consequently, offensive realism and defensive realism are appropriate g…
Economic Integration in Central Asia: The Russian and Chinese Relationship
Research Article| March 01 2000 Economic Integration in Central Asia: The Russian and Chinese Relationship Shiping Tang Shiping Tang Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Asian Survey (2000) 40 (2): 360–376. https://doi.org/10.2307/3021137 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cit…
Foundational Paradigms of Social Sciences
When stripped to the bare bone, there are only 11 foundational paradigms in social sciences. These foundational paradigms are like flashlights that can be utilized to shed light on different aspects of human society, but each of them can only shed light on a limited area of human society. Different schools in social science result from different but often incomplete combinations of these foundational paradigms. To adequately understand human soci…
The security dilemma and ethnic conflict: Toward a dynamic and integrative theory of ethnic conflict
I critically examine the existing literature on the security dilemma in ethnic conflict, thus laying part of the foundation for constructing a dynamic and integrative theory of ethnic conflict. I show that many attempts to apply the security dilemma to the understanding of ethnic conflict have been based on an imprecise and often mistaken understanding of the concept. I then emphasise that the security dilemma theory and the broader spiral model …
Offence-defence Theory: Towards a Definitive Understanding
Offence-defence theory (ODT) dominates the understanding of many security and international relations (IR) theorists of the role in international politics that military technology plays. ODT has produced some of the most cited works in realism literature,1 as evident in the many works which—implicitly and explicitly—rely on ODT to propel their arguments.2 ODT is classified in such literature as quintessential defensive realism theory,3 and also i…
Does Oil Cause Ethnic War? Comparing Evidence from Process-tracing with Quantitative Results
This article contributes both empirically and methodologically. Empirically, we seek to advance our understanding of an important puzzle: does oil cause ethnic war? Methodologically, we seek to identify more precisely the different weaknesses and strengths of the quantitative approach and case studies with process-tracing by explicitly comparing results from these two approaches on the same empirical question. We thus subject the statistical asso…
Order: A Conceptual Analysis
Outline of a New Theory of Attribution in IR: Dimensions of Uncertainty and Their Cognitive Challenges
Four internal dimensions (capability, intention, interest, and resolve) and one external dimension (the strategic environment, broadly speaking) are indispensable for us to make sense of others’ behavior. This article outlines a new theory of behavioral attribution in IR. Specifically, each of the five dimensions independently poses different challenges for our cognition, and interaction of the five dimensions poses an even formidable challenge f…
Neoclassical Realism: Methodological Critiques and Remedies
The debate on how neoclassical realism (NCR) has fared as a new brand of realism and supposedly a more rigorous approach towards foreign policy has become increasingly acerbic. Most NCR critics have challenged NCR’s epistemological positions, and few have scrutinised NCR’s methodological practice. This essay seeks to fill the void and focuses on the latter. My aim is both critical and constructive. Because NCR’s mainstay method is comparative cas…
Practical Concerns and Power Considerations
Journal Article Practical Concerns and Power Considerations Get access Shiping Tang Shiping Tang FUDAN University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Studies Review, Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2016, Pages 162–163, https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viv035 Published: 02 March 2016
America’s military interventionism: A social evolutionary interpretation
By synthesizing material forces with ideational forces more organically via a social evolutionary approach, we advance a deeper understanding about post-World War II American military interventionism. We argue that post-World War II American military interventionism — that is, the American elites’ and public’s support for America’s military intervention abroad — cannot be understood with ideational or psychological forces alone. Rather, two cruci…
Economic Integration in Central Asia: The Russian and Chinese Relationship
Research Article| March 01 2000 Economic Integration in Central Asia: The Russian and Chinese Relationship Shiping Tang Shiping Tang Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Asian Survey (2000) 40 (2): 360–376. https://doi.org/10.2307/3021137 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cit…
A Systemic Theory of the Security Environment
This article develops a systemic theory of security environment and explores the theory's implication for managing security. The central theme here is to argue that becuase security environment is a system, a systemic approach, not the conventional approach by identifying threats, is the way to go for understanding security environment and making strategy. The article first identifies the factors shaping security environment and elaborates on how…
Reputation, Cult of Reputation, and International Conflict
Building on recent scholarship on reputation in international politics, this article argues that, because reputation for resolve cannot form in international conflicts due to anarchy, politicians' persistent belief in the value of reputation for resolve is merely a cult of reputation. After outlining the logic of the cult and an operational code derived from it, this article examines the pattern of influence that the cult has exerted on state beh…
Uncertainty and Reassurance in International Politics
July 01 2007 Uncertainty and Reassurance in International Politics Shiping Tang, Shiping Tang Shiping Tang is Senior Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is completing a book on defensive realism, tentatively titled Defensive Realism: A Systematic Statement. He thanks Alan Collins, S.P. Harish, Andrew Kydd, Richard Ned Lebow, and Randall Schweller for their helpful comments on…
Fear in International Politics: Two Positions
There are two—and only two—fundamental positions on how to cope with the fear that is derived from the uncertainty over others’ intentions in international relations (IR) literature. Because these two positions cannot be deduced from other bedrock assumptions within the different IR approaches, the two positions should be taken as an additional bedrock assumption. The first position, held by offensive realism, insists that states should assume th…
Living with China: Regional States and China Through Crises and Turning Points
Taking Stock of Neoclassical Realism
Within contemporary realism literature, neoclassical realism, which seeks to combine both structural and domestic variables to explain state behaviors, has been where the action is (Sterling-Folker 1997; Rose 1998; Introduction, this volume). Admitting structural realism's notion that structure is an important factor for shaping state behavior, neoclassical realism adds a new assumption: structural impact has to be relayed to state behavior via d…
The Security Dilemma: A Conceptual Analysis
Critically building upon the work of Herbert Butterfield, John Herz, and Robert Jervis, this article advances a more rigorous definition of the security dilemma. It demonstrates critical implications of the rigorously redefined concept. It examines several influential extensions and expansions of the original concept, showing that most have been inaccurate and misleading, and proposes remedies for correcting the mistakes. Finally, it identifies s…
A Theory of Security Strategy for Our Time: Defensive Realism
This book advances a coherent statement of defensive realism as a theory of strategy for our time and adds to our understanding of defensive realism as a grand theory of IR in particular and our under
The Security Dilemma: A Conceptual Analysis
The security dilemma is one of the most important theoretical ideas in international relations (Wheeler and Booth 1992, 29).1 Not surprisingly, in the years since Herbert Butterfield (1950), John Herz (1950; 1966), and Robert Jervis (1976; 1978) first developed the concept, this concept has been extended and applied to "address many of the most important questions of international relations theory and security policy" (Glaser 1997, 172).KeywordsS…
Offence-defence Theory: Towards a Definitive Understanding
Offence-defence theory (ODT) dominates the understanding of many security and international relations (IR) theorists of the role in international politics that military technology plays. ODT has produced some of the most cited works in realism literature,1 as evident in the many works which—implicitly and explicitly—rely on ODT to propel their arguments.2 ODT is classified in such literature as quintessential defensive realism theory,3 and also i…
Foundational Paradigms of Social Sciences
When stripped to the bare bone, there are only 11 foundational paradigms in social sciences. These foundational paradigms are like flashlights that can be utilized to shed light on different aspects of human society, but each of them can only shed light on a limited area of human society. Different schools in social science result from different but often incomplete combinations of these foundational paradigms. To adequately understand human soci…
Social evolution of international politics: From Mearsheimer to Jervis
I advance an endogenous explanation for the systemic transformation of international politics and offer to neatly resolve the debate between offensive realism and defensive realism through a social evolutionary approach. I contend that international politics has always been an evolutionary system and it has evolved from an offensive realism world to a defensive realism world. Consequently, offensive realism and defensive realism are appropriate g…
A New Unsupervised Approach to Word Segmentation
This article proposes ESA, a new unsupervised approach to word segmentation. ESA is an iterative process consisting of 3 phases: Evaluation, Selection, and Adjustment. In Evaluation, both certainty and uncertainty of character sequence co-occurrence in corpora are considered as the statistical evidence supporting goodness measurement. Additionally, the statistical data of character sequences with various lengths become comparable with each other …
The security dilemma and ethnic conflict: Toward a dynamic and integrative theory of ethnic conflict
I critically examine the existing literature on the security dilemma in ethnic conflict, thus laying part of the foundation for constructing a dynamic and integrative theory of ethnic conflict. I show that many attempts to apply the security dilemma to the understanding of ethnic conflict have been based on an imprecise and often mistaken understanding of the concept. I then emphasise that the security dilemma theory and the broader spiral model …
Reconciliation and the Remaking of Anarchy
For years, mainstream international relations (IR) theorists have essentially ignored reconciliation as a special—and perhaps the most difficult—form of cooperation building in international politics. This review article seeks to make the study of reconciliation a more visible field for further inquiry in IR, comparative politics, and sociology for both theoretical and practical reasons. After summarizing important themes emerged from the recent …
Outline of a New Theory of Attribution in IR: Dimensions of Uncertainty and Their Cognitive Challenges
Four internal dimensions (capability, intention, interest, and resolve) and one external dimension (the strategic environment, broadly speaking) are indispensable for us to make sense of others’ behavior. This article outlines a new theory of behavioral attribution in IR. Specifically, each of the five dimensions independently poses different challenges for our cognition, and interaction of the five dimensions poses an even formidable challenge f…
America’s military interventionism: A social evolutionary interpretation
By synthesizing material forces with ideational forces more organically via a social evolutionary approach, we advance a deeper understanding about post-World War II American military interventionism. We argue that post-World War II American military interventionism — that is, the American elites’ and public’s support for America’s military intervention abroad — cannot be understood with ideational or psychological forces alone. Rather, two cruci…
The Social Evolution of International Politics
Deploying an original “Social Evolution Paradigm (SEP)” and drawing from archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and international relations, this book advances a sweeping account for the systemic transformation of international politics. More specifically, the book shows how the nasty and brutish Hobbesian/offensive realism world many of us take for granted had evolved from an Eden-like paradise; how the Hobbesian world had self-transfo…
The Onset of Ethnic War: A General Theory
This article develops a general theory regarding the onset of ethnic war, starting with two analytic innovations: a mechanism-based approach toward social facts and an emphasis on dynamic interactions. I deploy two meta-mechanisms - the security dilemma/spiral model and intergroup-intragroup interactions - as meta-synthesizers. I then bring together the numerous factors and mechanisms scattered in the literature into a more integrative and dynami…
Order: A Conceptual Analysis
Practical Concerns and Power Considerations
Journal Article Practical Concerns and Power Considerations Get access Shiping Tang Shiping Tang FUDAN University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Studies Review, Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2016, Pages 162–163, https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viv035 Published: 02 March 2016
Location, Location, Location: The Ethno-Geography of Oil and the Onset of Ethnic War
Does Oil Cause Ethnic War? Comparing Evidence from Process-tracing with Quantitative Results
This article contributes both empirically and methodologically. Empirically, we seek to advance our understanding of an important puzzle: does oil cause ethnic war? Methodologically, we seek to identify more precisely the different weaknesses and strengths of the quantitative approach and case studies with process-tracing by explicitly comparing results from these two approaches on the same empirical question. We thus subject the statistical asso…
China and the Future International Order(s)
In this essay I survey the key themes within China's discourse on international order, especially how China views its position and role in shaping the existing and future order. I go on to explore the possible implications of China's thinking and actions toward the existing international order. I conclude that overall, China sees no need for and hence does not seek fundamental transformation, but rather piecemeal modification of the existing orde…
Political science (25 works) · Sociology (23 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (19 works) · Law (19 works) · Politics (19 works) · Economics (16 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · International relations (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works)