A comparative exploration of Western and Chinese understandings of justice and their possible use to reframe Sino-American relations and international governance. The concept of justice is central to politics: it justifies the ordering of society and the distribution of rewards. In Justice and International Order, Richard Ned Lebow and Feng Zhang compare and contrast Western and Chinese conceptions of justice. They argue that justice can almost invariably be reduced to the principles of fairness and equality, although they are developed and expressed differently in the two cultures. Lebow and Zhang show that there has been a noticeable shift in both in favoring equality over fairness in the modern era. They analyze the growing conflict between China and the West in the light of these conceptions of justice and show how they might be deployed to ameliorate it. The authors also offer a critique of what passes for global order and explore ways in which fairness and equality, and trade-offs between them, offer pathways to better and more peaceful worlds.

In Justice and International Order, Richard Ned Lebow and Feng Zhang compare and contrast Western and Chinese conceptions of justice. Lebow and Zhang argue that justice can often be reduced to the principles of fairness and equality, although they are developed and expressed quite differently in the two cultures. This book reveals the extent to which Sino-Western competition in the present era can be explained by their different conceptions of justice. The authors further examine whether these conceptions are either converging or diverging, and what this means for great-power international relations.

These expert authors with impressive command of the broad range of relevant social science, historical, and related literature needed for this book have done a remarkable job in making their case for improvement in US-China relations and the broader world order.