China, North Korea, Iran, the United States, and Triadic Closure
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/china-s-diplomatic-ties-ally-north-korea-are-fraying-n799736 and http://thediplomat.com/2017/06/rouhanis-reelection-means-continued-iran-china-engagement/
The article I read about was describing the relationships that China has with North Korea (DPRK). Many political strategies see China as one of the few countries that have ties with DPRK and can thus impact country policy, something that is particularly advantageous in today’s contentious times. This idea got me thinking about networks and what other countries the United States does not have ties to, but China does. After reading some more articles, I found a similar relationship exists between China, the United States, and Iran. China’s diplomatic relationships with Iran could help maintain peace in the nation and also controlling oil prices. While both articles described the waning relationships that China has with these nations, I thought it would be interesting to draw up a small network of nations and see how the concepts we learned in class could be applied here.
This idea relates to the idea of triadic closure, a concept which we covered in class. The United States is in this cluster of deeply embedded edges, which means they are surrounded by mutual friends and thus can have greater trust in their interactions. The US knows that its relationships are kind of being watched and chaperoned by their mutual friends and so if a country misbehaves, many countries can watch and disapprove their actions. This creates a network of countries that will always behave, because they know the consequences if they don’t, an advantage for the United States since it can count on all its allies work together. In the case of war or economic crisis, the United States can always turn to its allies for support.
On the other side, China has a lot more ‘riskier’ interactions since the interactions it has with Iran and North Korea. China has no third party witnessing and chaperoning ensuring good behavior. In the event of misbehavior from these countries, there’s no witness and thus no real punishments that can be established by other countries, creating an environment where this is less incentive to behave. But the advantages for this set up is that China gets to be the ‘gatekeeper’ of sorts because China is the only nation that can bring outside insight to these countries, putting China is a position of power. This allows China to trade with these nations and gain economically with its exclusivity of trade. Yet, if China is put in a bad spot, it cannot count on these nations providing support for the nation.
Based on the idea of structural holes, we know that the position of China is generally advantageous and allows for quick growth, but we will have to see how this idea pans out into the realm of international relations.