Much work has been done to deconstruct the links between knowledge and power in IR as an"American Social Science."But both
the English School and"IR Theory with Chinese Characteristics"are also involved in"nationalizing"
international theory .This essay uses a genealogical method to trace the
emergence of the Chinese School in the 1990s and the logic behind its emergence in the context of the rise of Chinese nationalism,and it analyzes the theory's appeal to the ancient ethical concept of Great Harmony.The construction of this theory is related to the emergence and logic of the English School's discussion of an"international society.""International society"and Great Harmony both use the"standards of civilization"to draw boundaries between the subjects and objects of IR.The essay concludes that one of the ways by which the two IR theories gain coherence is to exclude American IR theory in the same logic of civilization and empire:an American theoretical"other"is constructed so as to reaffirm the Chinese and English self.Hence these theories are not as radical as their promoters suggest;rather,by limiting theoretical discussion to these three nation-states,they are conservative confederates of other state-centric approaches to world politics.