An extensively researched study of Chinese participation in international organizations, 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 World Bank, the IMF, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the International Labour Organization, the UN Committee Against Torture, and the WHO, 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.

Ann Kent wrote this book while Australian Research Council Fellow in the Centre for International and Public Law, Faculty of Law at the Australian National University. She is the author of numerous books and articles on China and international organizations.