The Green Wind from the East: China and Japan Challenging Global Development Norms

As the field of global development governance is undergoing fundamental shifts because of the contestations between mainly two sets of norms for development cooperation (DC): the (neo)liberal norms of Western countries and the mutually beneficial and state-led norms of the Asian Model, this project seeks to provide some path-breaking answers to the following research question: To what extent and how does the Asian Model of DC adopted by China and Japan challenge, complement, and reshape global development norms through expanding green energy projects overseas? Through case studies of Chinese and Japanese green energy projects in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Ethiopia, we examine to what extent and how the Asian Model is diffused to other countries and the implications for sustainability. It applies international political economy (IPE) theories to analyse development issues and uses development cases to examine and enrich IPE theories about norm change and transnational norm diffusion.