关键词: 修正主义, 国际秩序, 基本规则, 坏国家

Abstract: The history of international relations has been a history of revision, with state behavior more or less revising the status quo of the international system. But states will not become revisionist states for their revisionist behavior on specific issues. If a rising power pursues for more power while supporting the basic rules of the existing international order, it will not become a revisionist state, either. Only states pursuing to change the basic rules of international order should be defined as revisionist states. Whether a state decides to become a revisionist state not only depends on its attitudes towards those basic rules, but also its costbenefit calculation. Hegemons and rising powers might both become revisionist states and in an open international system, a hegemon in relative decline is more likely to become a revisionist state. Revisionist states might be good or bad, and this not only depends what kind of new ideas and rules the revisionist state brings forward, but also depends on how the revisionist sate conducts its revisionist behavior.  Revisionist State should be a neutral term in academical and political discourse of international relations.

Key words: revisionism, international order, basic rule, bad state