A Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research Discourse in the Studies on China’s Non-traditional Security: A Visualization Approach Based on CiteSpace
Chen Yumei1,2,3, Fu Huan4
1.School of Public Administration / School of Emergency Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China 2.Emergency Management Research Center, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510630, China 3.Center for Government Big Data Open & Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OGDSE), Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China 4.Shenzhen Insurance Association, Shenzhen 518046, China
Abstract：Under the globalization background, there have emerged many insecure factors of various forms directly threatening all countries and human beings. Therefore, non-traditional security research and non-traditional security crisis response have become the top priority of academic planning and decision-making in countries around the world. Through a comprehensive comparison and analysis of the evolution of “research discourse” in the domestic and foreign literature on China’s non-traditional security research in the past 20 years, research hotspots and trends can be intuitively extracted, thus enabling better understanding and guidance in the construction and development of the theoretical research framework of China’s non-traditional security. In this study, China’s non-traditional security and related topics were used as keywords to search in the Chinese full-text journal database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), from which 3,064 Chinese documents of the past 20 years were retrieved. Meanwhile, the retrieval formula “SU=security study+China+Chinese” was used to search in the English literature database Web of Science, and 939 English journals were obtained. After a total of 4,003 documents were imported into the document analysis software CiteSpace, macro- and micro-quantitative researches on the interdisciplinary scope, research hotspots, discourse evolution and development trends of China’s non-traditional security were conducted in multiple dimensions such as the distribution of disciplines, research institutions and authors’ cooperation networks, keywords co-occurrences and clustering clusters, and burst terms from the research fronts. A comprehensive comparison with international non-traditional security research theories was also done at the same time.In the past 20 years, China’s non-traditional security research has shown an obvious growth trend in quantity. It reached its climax in 2014, after China put forward the “overall national security outlook”. Domestic research is more comprehensive and is led by Chinese and international politics researches, showing an interdisciplinary nature. Foreign research is more specific and can be refined into various non-traditional security areas such as economics and environmental ecology. At present, domestic research institutions are mainly located at Zhejiang University, Fudan University, University of International Relations, etc. Most journals are written by YU Xiaofeng, LIU Yuejin, XU Huabing, etc. However, there is still a lack of in-depth integration and cooperation among researchers from different institutions. An effective academic exchange and cooperation mechanism has not yet been formed. Most of the research institutions and scholars contributing to the relevant English literature are mainly domestic, mostly from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang University and other institutions.Nine clustering clusters were formed according to the co-occurrence and hierarchical cluster analysis maps, including security cooperation, overall national security outlook, non-traditional security, human security, non-combat military operations, North America, international cooperation, fields, and higher education. In the analysis of burst terms from the research fronts, 57 burst terms were obtained from all keywords and nominal terms. They have roughly gone through three stages from 1999 to the present. Globalization, cultural security, overall national security outlook, and the Belt and Road Initiative have become popular keywords at each stage. After comparing the development of international theories on non-traditional security research and the most frequently used keywords in the foreign literature such as “China”, “security”, and “food security”, this article summarizes four evolution paths: (1) high-level political security research focusing on “globalization”; (2) low-level political security research focusing on “environmental security” and “social security”; (3) soft security research focusing on “cultural security” and “network security”; and (4) the security paradigm and security field research based mainly on “the Belt and Road Initiative” and “overall national security outlook”.
陈玉梅, 付欢. 中国非传统安全研究的知识图谱分析[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2021, 51(3): 29-47.
Chen Yumei, Fu Huan. A Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research Discourse in the Studies on China’s Non-traditional Security: A Visualization Approach Based on CiteSpace. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2021, 51(3): 29-47.
2021, Vol. 51 
