Hard Interests Soft Illusions

Author : Natasha Hamilton-Hart
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801464501
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hard Interests, Soft Illusions written by Natasha Hamilton-Hart and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hard Interests, Soft Illusions, Natasha Hamilton-Hart explores the belief held by foreign policy elites in much of Southeast Asia—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam—that the United States is a relatively benign power. She argues that this belief is an important factor underpinning U.S. preeminence in the region, because beliefs inform specific foreign policy decisions and form the basis for broad orientations of alignment, opposition, or nonalignment. Such foundational beliefs, however, do not simply reflect objective facts and reasoning processes. Hamilton-Hart argues that they are driven by both interests—in this case the political and economic interests of ruling groups in Southeast Asia—and illusions. Hamilton-Hart shows how the information landscape and standards of professional expertise within the foreign policy communities of Southeast Asia shape beliefs about the United States. These opinions frequently rest on deeply biased understandings of national history that dominate perceptions of the past and underlie strategic assessments of the present and future. Members of the foreign policy community rarely engage in probabilistic reasoning or effortful knowledge-testing strategies. This does not mean, she emphasizes, that the beliefs are insincere or merely instrumental rationalizations. Rather, cognitive and affective biases in the ways humans access and use information mean that interests influence beliefs; how they do so depends on available information, the social organization and practices of a professional sphere, and prevailing standards for generating knowledge.

Author : Natasha Hamilton-Hart
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 080146403X
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hard Interests, Soft Illusions written by Natasha Hamilton-Hart and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hard Interests, Soft Illusions, Natasha Hamilton-Hart explores the belief held by foreign policy elites in much of Southeast Asia-Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam-that the United States is a relatively benign power. She argues that this belief is an important factor underpinning U.S. preeminence in the region, because beliefs inform specific foreign policy decisions and form the basis for broad orientations of alignment, opposition, or nonalignment. Such foundational beliefs, however, do not simply reflect objective facts and reasoning processes. Hamilton-Hart argues that they are driven by both interests-in this case the political and economic interests of ruling groups in Southeast Asia-and illusions. Hamilton-Hart shows how the information landscape and standards of professional expertise within the foreign policy communities of Southeast Asia shape beliefs about the United States. These opinions frequently rest on deeply biased understandings of national history that dominate perceptions of the past and underlie strategic assessments of the present and future. Members of the foreign policy community rarely engage in probabilistic reasoning or effortful knowledge-testing strategies. This does not mean, she emphasizes, that the beliefs are insincere or merely instrumental rationalizations. Rather, cognitive and affective biases in the ways humans access and use information mean that interests influence beliefs; how they do so depends on available information, the social organization and practices of a professional sphere, and prevailing standards for generating knowledge.

Author : Van Jackson
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300268718
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pacific Power Paradox written by Van Jackson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new history of Asian peace since 1979 that considers America’s paradoxical role After more than a century of recurring conflict, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region have managed something remarkable: avoiding war among nations. Since 1979, Asia has endured threats, near-miss crises, and nuclear proliferation but no interstate war. How fragile is this “Asian peace,” and what is America’s role in it? Van Jackson argues that because Washington takes for granted that the United States is a force for good, successive presidencies have failed to see how their statecraft impedes more durable forms of security and inadvertently embrittles peace. At times, the United States has been the region’s bulwark against instability, but America has been a threat to Asian peace as much as it has been its guarantor. By grappling with how America fits into the Asian story, Jackson shows how regional stability has diminished because of U.S. choices, and why America’s margin for geopolitical error is less now than ever before.

Author : Salvador Santino Fulo Regilme
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 047203927X
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Aid Imperium written by Salvador Santino Fulo Regilme and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2023-01-10 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How US foreign policy affects state repression

Author : P. W. Preston
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137572213
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Political Cultural Developments in East Asia written by P. W. Preston and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an interpretive and critical comparative politics analysis of the post-1945 development trajectory of the broad East Asian region and its component countries. The discussion considers the region and its countries in terms of their historical legacies (colonialism, war and the preoccupation with development) and argues that each country has constructed their own way of ordering political life, each created its own political logic. Arguing that it is an error to judge these countries’ performance against the model of Europe or America, Preston discusses the era of expansionist colonialism, the episode of breakdown in highly destructive regional warfare in the early twentieth century and the subsequent diverse records of China (with its party-state turned towards a nominal state-socialism), Hong Kong (confronting the problems of living with distant masters), Singapore (with its elite directed national building) and Thailand (mired in elite-resistance to popular political reform).

Author : Andrew Yeo
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 1503608808
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Asia's Regional Architecture written by Andrew Yeo and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Cold War, the U.S. built a series of alliances with Asian nations to erect a bulwark against the spread of communism and provide security to the region. Despite pressure to end bilateral alliances in the post-Cold War world, they persist to this day, even as new multilateral institutions have sprung up around them. The resulting architecture may aggravate rivalries as the U.S., China, and others compete for influence. However, Andrew Yeo demonstrates how Asia's complex array of bilateral and multilateral agreements may ultimately bring greater stability and order to a region fraught with underlying tensions. Asia's Regional Architecture transcends traditional international relations models. It investigates change and continuity in Asia through the lens of historical institutionalism. Refuting claims regarding the demise of the liberal international order, Yeo reveals how overlapping institutions can promote regional governance and reduce uncertainty in a global context. In addition to considering established institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, he discusses newer regional arrangements including the East Asia Summit, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Belt and Road Initiative. This book has important implications for how policymakers think about institutional design and regionalism in Asia and beyond.

Author : Joseph Chinyong Liow
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815729685
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ambivalent Engagement written by Joseph Chinyong Liow and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The paradox of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia The Obama administration's pivot-to-Asia policy establishes an important place for Southeast Asia in U.S. foreign policy. But Washington's attention to the region has fluctuated dramatically, from the intense intervention of the cold war era to near neglect in more recent years. As a consequence, countries in Southeast Asia worry that the United States once again will become distracted by other problems and disengage from the region. This book written by an astute observer of the region and U.S. policy casts light on the sources of these anxieties. A main consideration is that it still is not clear how Southeast Asia fits into U.S. strategy for Asia and the broader world. Is the region central to U.S. policymaking, or an afterthought? Ambivalent Engagement highlights a dilemma that is becoming increasingly conspicuous and problematic. Southeast Asia continues to rely on the United States to play an active role in the region even though it is an external power. But the countries of Southeast Asia have very different views about precisely what role the United States should play. The consequences of this ambivalence will grow in importance with the expanding role of yet another outside power, China.

Author : Thierry Balzacq
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192576623
Total Pages : 801 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy written by Thierry Balzacq and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 801 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. The seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy's implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors', including non-state actors', grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarization to technological change to aging populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.

Author : David Shambaugh
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190914998
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Where Great Powers Meet written by David Shambaugh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the end of the Cold War, it seemed as if Southeast Asia would remain a geopolitically stable region within the American-led order for the foreseeable future. In the last two decades, however, the re-emergence of China as a major great power has called into question the geopolitical future of the region and raised the specter of renewed great power competition. As the eminent China scholar David Shambaugh explains in Where Great Powers Meet, the United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia. In this book, Shambaugh focuses on the critical sub-region of Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence across this enormously significant area--and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence. Just as importantly, to the extent that there is a global "power transition" occurring from the US to China, the fate of Southeast Asia will be a good indicator. Presently, both powers bring important assets to bear in their competition. The United States continues to possess a depth and breadth of security ties, soft power, and direct investment across the region that empirically outweigh China's. For its part, China has more diplomatic influence, much greater trade, and geographic proximity. In assessing the likelihood of a regional power transition, Shambaugh examines how ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its member states maneuver and the degree to which they align with one or the other power.

Author : Alice D. Ba
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 113759621X
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Contemporary Southeast Asia written by Alice D. Ba and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-25 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the epicenter of the world's most dynamic economic continent, Southeast Asia provides a window into some of the most important contemporary global developments in politics, and plays a crucial role in determining the wider region's future. The 3rd edition of this highly-acclaimed text provides a comprehensive analysis of Southeast Asia's remarkable variety of political systems, cultures and traditions, which are without exception all undergoing a variety of major changes. Written by a team of leading experts on Southeast Asia, this volume provides an accessible introduction to a region being buffeted by profound internal social transformation and great power confrontation, as well as the continuing challenges of economic development and environmental management. Comprehensive in its analysis and ambitious in scope, this book will be the perfect introduction for students interested in the culture, politics, economy and society of the nations of Southeast Asia.