论区域国别学的学科性质与发展困境-地理学的视角

After being established as a first-level interdisciplinary discipline, country and area studies have garnered rising attention and heated discussions among scholars from foreign languages and literature, political science, world history, economics, and anthropology. However, geographers have relatively less involvement in these discussions. This paper argues that geographers should actively engage in the discourse surrounding the development of country and area studies and strengthen the dialogue between geography and this emerging field. Based on a systematic review of current discussions on the construction of country and area studies as a discipline, the paper redefines its nature and research scope from the perspective of geography and its disciplinary evolution. It posits that country and area studies represent a combination of interdisciplinary intelligence gathering and strategic analysis for specific regions or countries, oriented toward specific interests or threats. The research objects of this field can be delineated along three dimensions: regional delineation, factor (or domain) analysis, and application-driven demands. The paper further reflects on four major contradictions in the construction of country and area studies as a discipline: The tension between breaking disciplinary boundaries through an interdisciplinary perspective and the need to define clear boundaries as an independent discipline, the challenges in selecting the scope and scale of regions, the contradiction between producing background-specific knowledge emphasizing regional particularity and conducting universal theoretical research that transcends exceptionalism, and the conflict between emphasizing fieldwork and overcoming the cost and scalar traps of such investigations. Drawing on geography's integrative and scalar approach, the paper offers suggestions to address these contradictions. It further explores solutions through dialectical thinking, dialogue between Western and Chinese theories, and reforms in student training systems.