Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 12, 2022

The Shaping and Influence of the Global Value Chain on International Power

(Abstract)

Yu Nanping

International power is a core issue of international politics. Traditional Western theory has difficulty in finding convincing theoretical explanations for changes in international power against the background of global value chains because it lacks an analytical framework for the foundations of the global economy. From the perspective of Marxist political economy, the global value chain reflects the division of labor and coordination of global productivity and expresses the global economic foundations (the sum total of relations of production). The production and distribution of the global value chain have accelerated the formation of international relations and the power structure, which differs from those of the era of the “national whole industry chain.” The structure of the global value chain network reflects the features of Barabási’s complex network theory, fully demonstrating the factors of scale, junction, location, participation, key nodes, and chain owners that make up the patterns of international power. Empirical observation and research show that changes in the network structure of the global value chain can dynamically shape international power through network fitness, as great powers compete for the nodes and links of the global value chain.