Abstract
This theses examines how the American world order constrains China's strategic choices and what strategic options China could pursue in order to gain more control with the South China Sea. The thesis uses structural realism with a few post- or neoclassical elements to examine, whether china ought to balance or bandwagon with the USA in the region. The thesis uses the variables relative power, security and ideology to identify China's strategic constraints and options. The thesis concludes that China should pursue a combined strategy of internal hard balancing and soft balancing. The strategy of internal hard balancing aims to increase China's relative power through economic development and military modernization, whereas the strategy of soft balancing attempts to limit the responses from USA and the littoral states in the South China Sea. The strategic logic is therefore to maintain a stable external environment for China to concentrate on economic growth and accumulate relative power, without provoking responses from the USA or the Southeast Asian states that could constrain Chinas ambitions