Geopolitical Competition for 5G Technology between China and the United States : Former U.S. President Trump’s Ban on Huawei

Abstract: This thesis is analysing the geopolitical and geoeconomical standoff surrounding 5G technology between the United States (US) and the People’s Republic of China (China) by answering the question how and why former US President Donald Trump decided to ban Huawei on May 15th 2019. The unique combination of Offensive Structural Realism, Ontological Belief Systems, Problem Representation, Option Generation and Poliheuristic Theory reveals a multidimensional answer. Nonetheless, the main aspect is placed on systemic developments and the US fear for relative decline in regard to China.The argument - supported by descriptive statistics - is that fear of loss of dominant status and competition over standard setting power puts both states in a competitive and aggressive environment. Moreover, this thesis first showcases the effects of former President Trump’s ontological belief system on Problem Representation and Option Generation by utilizing a specific type of Operational Code Analysis: The Verbs In Context System. Second, it illustrates with Poliheuristic Theory how generated foreign policy options get eliminated during the cognitive stage by the noncompensatory principle and in the rational stage by rational utility maximisation.In addition, this work fills a gap in the International Relations subfield of foreign policy analysis scholarship by incorporating and emphasising ontological belief systems within Keller & Yang’s (2016) hybrid framework of Problem Representation, Option Generation and Poliheuristic Theory.