Conclusion The Attenuation and Prevention of National Humiliation
This chapter provides a conclusion by placing the findings into the broader context of international politics and international relations theory. It demonstrates the utility of the theory for understanding the contemporary foreign policies of China and Russia and sheds light on why the effects of humiliation may linger in some states longer than others. The chapter draws key distinctions between the theory and predictions of humiliation and more material and security-based explanations of international behavior. It addresses questions on what can be done to ameliorate or even prevent national humiliation and why are the ameliorative strategies often not employed by other states, much to the detriment of international stability and cooperation. It emphasizes how national humiliation affects world affairs in crucial ways and how it led important periods of international competition within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and will continue to do so in the future.