Beyond Compliance argues that the record of China's international behavior since the 1970s indicates the long-term effectiveness of the multilateral system. Through its analysis of China's interaction with leading international organizations—such as the Conference on Disarmament, the IMF, and the United Nations Environmental Programme—it concludes that engagement with the multilateral system is the key to the gradual socialization of "rogue" states. Contrasting the People's Republic of China's post-1949 alienation from the international community with its increasing compliance since it entered the United Nations in 1971 with the rules of leading international institutions, Kent explains China's changing attitude toward international institutions in terms of the most appropriate theories of state compliance. At the same time, she argues that compliance theories on their own are not sufficient to explain the complex interaction between states and the international system and develops a broader theory to encompass China's behavior.
