Falling in and falling out: Indo-Pacific in the midst of US–China tensions in the post-COVID world: introduction to the special issue

IF 1.2 4区 社会学 Q3 POLITICAL SCIENCE Political Science Pub Date : 2021-01-02 DOI:10.1080/00323187.2021.1967766
A. C. Tan, Jason Young
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Abstract

This special issue explores great power rivalry in the Indo-Pacific by moving the analytical focus away from the great powers and onto those they seek to influence. It asks what strategies states and international organisations employ to maintain their economic and security interests, how they push back on competing great power demands and avoid stark choices or being dragged into the United States (US)–China strategic competition. Articles in this special issue present a complex picture of competing domestic interest groups and positions and show how maintaining autonomy and an independent foreign policy in the age of US–China strategic competition has become a more precarious challenge. Nearly half a century ago, ‘the week that changed the world’ vastly improved the strategic position of countries in Asia. The meeting between Richard Nixon and an ageing Mao Zedong helped turn a tense and confrontational Cold War stand-off towards open commerce and relative strategic stability. In hindsight, this shift was a prerequisite for China’s opening to the world creating the environment for countries across the region allied or partnered with the US to develop their then limited political, economic and social relations. Strategic stability and open economics spurred unprecedented economic growth and rising prosperity. Fast-forward nearly 50 years and countries across the region now have deep linkages with China, especially commercially, that in most instances and across many sectors outweigh those with the US. This marks the closure of that period of strategic stability. China’s economic growth is being translated into political and strategic influence and a more assertive foreign policy (Yan 2014), eliciting a strong US response. Political observers in the US have slowly but surely noted China’s rise as its economic growth rate began to pick up in the early 1990s (Bernstein and Munro 1997). Without explicitly targeting China, American policymakers began to tweak its Asia policy by adjusting the US–Japan alliance as well as the level of security and military cooperation with South Korea and Southeast Asian states. The ‘China challenge’ began to be debated in earnest as the Obama administration announced a US ‘pivot to Asia’. Since then, a general bi-partisan agreement has emerged that US policy failed to prevent the emergence of an authoritarian peer competitor but little if any consensus on what strategies would achieve better results has been reached (Harding 2015). As China’s power and influence across each domain increased, US policymakers and academics increasingly viewed Chinese actions as a challenge to US interests, particularly in Asia.
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落井下石:新冠疫情后中美紧张局势中的印太地区:特刊简介
本期特刊探讨了印太地区的大国竞争,将分析重点从大国转移到他们试图影响的大国身上。它询问各国和国际组织采用何种战略来维护其经济和安全利益,如何反击相互竞争的大国需求,避免严峻的选择或被拖入美中战略竞争。本期特刊中的文章呈现了国内利益集团和立场相互竞争的复杂画面,并表明在美中战略竞争时代保持自主和独立的外交政策已成为一项更加不稳定的挑战。近半个世纪前,“改变世界的一周”极大地提高了亚洲国家的战略地位。理查德·尼克松和年迈的毛泽东之间的会晤有助于将紧张和对抗性的冷战对峙转向开放的商业和相对的战略稳定。事后看来,这种转变是中国向世界开放的先决条件,为该地区与美国结盟或合作的国家发展当时有限的政治、经济和社会关系创造了环境。战略稳定和开放的经济刺激了前所未有的经济增长和日益繁荣。近50年过去了,该地区各国现在与中国有着深厚的联系,尤其是在商业上,在大多数情况下,在许多领域,这种联系都超过了与美国的联系。这标志着那段战略稳定时期的结束。中国的经济增长正在转化为政治和战略影响力以及更加自信的外交政策(严,2014),引起了美国的强烈反应。美国的政治观察家们缓慢但肯定地注意到,随着中国经济增长率在20世纪90年代初开始回升,中国的崛起(Bernstein和Munro,1997年)。在没有明确针对中国的情况下,美国政策制定者开始通过调整美日联盟以及与韩国和东南亚国家的安全和军事合作水平来调整其亚洲政策。随着奥巴马政府宣布美国将“转向亚洲”,“中国挑战”开始受到认真的辩论。从那时起,出现了一个普遍的两党协议,即美国的政策未能阻止独裁的同行竞争对手的出现,但对于什么策略能取得更好的结果,几乎没有达成共识(Harding,2015)。随着中国在各个领域的实力和影响力的增强,美国政策制定者和学者越来越多地将中国的行动视为对美国利益的挑战,尤其是在亚洲。
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来源期刊
Political Science
Political Science POLITICAL SCIENCE-
CiteScore
0.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
13
期刊介绍: Political Science publishes high quality original scholarly works in the broad field of political science. Submission of articles with a regional focus on New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific is particularly encouraged, but content is not limited to this focus. Contributions are invited from across the political science discipline, including from the fields of international relations, comparative politics, political theory and public administration. Proposals for collections of articles on a common theme or debate to be published as special issues are welcome, as well as individual submissions.
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