British Journal of Politics & International Relations
Examining US–China strategic competition: The case of China’s global initiatives at the United Nations Secretariat
2026-08-31
The well-reported multilateral rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) is presumed to challenge US leadership in a Western-dominated United Nations (UN) system. Among China’s many multilateral contributions are its advance of “Global Initiatives,” which China frames as “global public goods.” This paper applies sociological interpretations of power, specifically the Barnett & Duvall 2005 typology, to investigate the different strategies used by China to seed three of these Global Initiatives within and upon the UN Secretariat: the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative. While these Global Initiatives are still in their infancy, the research finds variation in how China is approaching each Initiative within the UN system and that these “global public goods” are sites of US–China strategic competition. The research draws from primary and secondary sources produced by PRC and UN elites and foreign policy researchers, and is supplemented by interviews of officials of the PRC, the United States, and the United Nations.