Japan’s Reluctant Realism

Japan’s Reluctant Realism
Author: M. Green
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2001-05-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 031229980X

In Japan's Reluctant Realism , Michael J. Green examines the adjustments of Japanese foreign policy in the decade since the end of the Cold War. Green presents case studies of China, the Korean peninsula, Russia and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the international financial institutions, and multilateral forums (the United Nations, APEC, and the ARF). In each of these studies, Green considers Japanese objectives; the effectiveness of Japanese diplomacy in achieving those objectives; the domestic and exogenous pressures on policy-making; the degree of convergence or divergence with the United States in both strategy and implementation; and lessons for more effective US - Japan diplomatic cooperation in the future. As Green notes, its bilateral relationship with the United States is at the heart of Japan's foreign policy initiatives, and Japan therefore conducts foreign policy with one eye carefully on Washington. However, Green argues, it is time to recognize Japan as an independent actor in Northeast Asia, and to assess Japanese foreign policy in its own terms.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Author: Mohsin Hamid
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2009-06-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307373355

From the author of the award-winning Moth Smoke comes a perspective on love, prejudice, and the war on terror that has never been seen in North American literature. At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. . . Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the “valuation” of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York and the intensity of his work, and his infatuation with regal Erica promises entrée into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love. Elegant and compelling, Mohsin Hamid’s second novel is a devastating exploration of our divided and yet ultimately indivisible world. “Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services as a bridge.” —from The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Realism in Practice

Realism in Practice
Author: J. R. Avgustin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781910814376

This book appraises the current relevance and validity of realism as an interpretative tool in contemporary International Relations. Overall, the collection shows that, in spite of its many shortcomings, realism still offers a multifaceted understanding of world politics and enlightens the increasing challenges of world politics.

Japan's Reluctant Realism

Japan's Reluctant Realism
Author: Michael J. Green
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2001
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780312238940

Has Japanese foreign policy changed in the post - Cold War era? On the surface, it appears to have been quite consistent since the end of World War II. It has stressed the US-Japanese security alliance, the use of economic tools, and constraints on the use of force. However, this book argues that new ideas and new patterns of diplomacy have in fact come about following the changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Using case studies that look at China, the Korean peninsulas, Russia and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and international institutions, Michael Green uncovers a more Japanese foreign policy in Japan. Though it still converges with the US on fundamental issues, it is increasingly independent. While remaining low-risk, it is more sensitive to balance-of-power issues. It is still reactive, but it is far less passive. Green argues that this emerging strategic view, what he calls “reluctant realism,” is being shaped by a combination of changes in the international environment, insecurity about national power resources, and Japanese aspirations for a national identity that moves beyond the legacy of World War II. As a result, it is time for the US and the world to recognize Japan as an independent actor in Northeast Asia and to assess Japanese foreign policy on its own terms.

Reluctant Crusaders

Reluctant Crusaders
Author: Colin Dueck
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2008-03-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400827221

In Reluctant Crusaders, Colin Dueck examines patterns of change and continuity in American foreign policy strategy by looking at four major turning points: the periods following World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He shows how American cultural assumptions regarding liberal foreign policy goals, together with international pressures, have acted to push and pull U.S. policy in competing directions over time. The result is a book that combines an appreciation for the role of both power and culture in international affairs. The centerpiece of Dueck's book is his discussion of America's "grand strategy"--the identification and promotion of national goals overseas in the face of limited resources and potential resistance. One of the common criticisms of the Bush administration's grand strategy is that it has turned its back on a long-standing tradition of liberal internationalism in foreign affairs. But Dueck argues that these criticisms misinterpret America's liberal internationalist tradition. In reality, Bush's grand strategy since 9/11 has been heavily influenced by traditional American foreign policy assumptions. While liberal internationalists argue that the United States should promote an international system characterized by democratic governments and open markets, Dueck contends, these same internationalists tend to define American interests in broad, expansive, and idealistic terms, without always admitting the necessary costs and risks of such a grand vision. The outcome is often sweeping goals, pursued by disproportionately limited means.

Retreat and its Consequences

Retreat and its Consequences
Author: Robert J. Lieber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 110714180X

This book explores the consequences of retreat and retrenchment in foreign policy which threaten America's own security.

Thucydides

Thucydides
Author: Jeffrey S. Rusten
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 530
Release: 2009-07-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199206201

A collection of essays on the first great work of political history - Thucydides' account of the war between Athens and Sparta. All Greek is translated, and an introductory chapter surveys the various ways in which Thucydides has been read and interpreted, from antiquity to the present.

US Foreign Policy and Global Standing in the 21st Century

US Foreign Policy and Global Standing in the 21st Century
Author: Efraim Inbar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-01-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317382706

This book examines US foreign policy and global standing in the 21st Century. The United States is the most powerful actor in world politics today. Against this backdrop, the present volume examines how the foreign policies pursued by Presidents’ George W. Bush and Barack Obama have affected elite and public perceptions of the United States. By examining America’s standing from the perspective of different actors from across various regions, including China, Russia, Latin America and the Middle East, while also assessing how these perceptions interact with America’s own policies, this books presents a fresh interpretation of America’s global standing. In doing so, the volume evaluates how these perceptions affect the realities of US power, and what impact this has on moulding US foreign policy and the policies of other global powers. A number of books address the question of which grand strategy the United States should adopt and the issue of whether or not America is in relative decline as a world power. However, the debate on these issues has largely been set against the policies of the Bush administration. By contrast, this volume argues that while Obama has raised the popularity of America since the low reached by Bush, America’s credibility and overall standing have actually been damaged further under President Obama. This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, US national security, strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics, international relations and security studies generally.

Living with a Reluctant Hegemon

Living with a Reluctant Hegemon
Author: Caroline Fehl
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2012
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199608628

Examines the striking variation of European responses to US unilateralism through studing European strategic choices in fice recent transatlantic conflicts over multilateral agreements.

Lawmaking under Pressure

Lawmaking under Pressure
Author: Giovanni Mantilla
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2020-12-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1501752596

In Lawmaking under Pressure, Giovanni Mantilla analyzes the origins and development of the international humanitarian treaty rules that now exist to regulate internal armed conflict. Until well into the twentieth century, states allowed atrocious violence as an acceptable product of internal conflict. Why have states created international laws to control internal armed conflict? Why did states compromise their national security by accepting these international humanitarian constraints? Why did they create these rules at improbable moments, as European empires cracked, freedom fighters emerged, and fears of communist rebellion spread? Mantilla explores the global politics and diplomatic dynamics that led to the creation of such laws in 1949 and in the 1970s. By the 1949 Diplomatic Conference that revised the Geneva Conventions, most countries supported legislation committing states and rebels to humane principles of wartime behavior and to the avoidance of abhorrent atrocities, including torture and the murder of non-combatants. However, for decades, states had long refused to codify similar regulations concerning violence within their own borders. Diplomatic conferences in Geneva twice channeled humanitarian attitudes alongside Cold War and decolonization politics, even compelling reluctant European empires Britain and France to accept them. Lawmaking under Pressure documents the tense politics behind the making of humanitarian laws that have become touchstones of the contemporary international normative order. Mantilla not only explains the pressures that resulted in constraints on national sovereignty but also uncovers the fascinating international politics of shame, status, and hypocrisy that helped to produce the humanitarian rules now governing internal conflict.