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Articles 1 - 30 of 115
Full-Text Articles in International Relations
China And International Economic Dispute Settlement: Disaggregating The State, Gregory Shaffer, Ji Li, Henry S. Gao
China And International Economic Dispute Settlement: Disaggregating The State, Gregory Shaffer, Ji Li, Henry S. Gao
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Most studies take a unitary state-centric approach to assessing China’s relationship with international economic law. In contrast, we provide a more nuanced approach that assesses variation in China’s engagement. We examine the role of different Chinese state and non-state actors, considering their interests, ideological frames, institutional contexts, and relation to state power. We illustrate our analytic framework by examining China’s response to and engagement with international dispute settlement systems in three areas: international commercial arbitration, international trade dispute settlement, and investor–state arbitration. Our approach is important for global cooperation in discrete policy areas so that the West does not ‘other’ …
Asia’S Future Will Be Won By Soft Power, Not Force, Lily Kong
Asia’S Future Will Be Won By Soft Power, Not Force, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Lily Kong argues that while force remains essential to deter aggression and manage worst-case scenarios, military strength may prevent defeat, but it rarely produces legitimacy. When hard power dominates the strategic imagination, volatility rises and markets suffer. Soft power – the ability to influence countries through persuasion, attraction and legitimacy – has become a strategic asset, she writes. It shapes expectations, lowers baseline tensions, and creates off-ramps in moments of crisis, often determining whether tensions escalate, how long crises last, and how much economic damage they inflict. Prof Kong believes that in a nuclear-armed, economically interdependent Asia, the real test …
The Imperial Gaze: Affective Governance, Hybrid Cartography, And China’S U-Shaped Line, William A. Callahan
The Imperial Gaze: Affective Governance, Hybrid Cartography, And China’S U-Shaped Line, William A. Callahan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article develops ‘the imperial gaze’ concept to explore how maps not only represent the world, but also do things in geopolitics, even provoking mass demonstrations. It examines China’s early-modern and contemporary maps to highlight how they create an imperial gaze that guides Chinese understandings of world order. If your cartographic ‘view of the world’ produces your ideological ‘worldview’, then it is important to see how China’s early-modern maps inform the PRC’s twenty-first-century claims in the South China Sea. The article argues that Chinese cartography does things in geopolitics by mobilising the affective governance of an assemblage of hybrid combinations …
Your Past Is My Present: Does Evoking Historical Analogies Change Public Opinion Regarding Foreign Policy?, Anil Menon, Yehonathan Abramson, Dean C. Dulay, Pauline Jones
Your Past Is My Present: Does Evoking Historical Analogies Change Public Opinion Regarding Foreign Policy?, Anil Menon, Yehonathan Abramson, Dean C. Dulay, Pauline Jones
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Historical analogies are often employed as tools of public persuasion on security and foreign policies. While existing research points to the potential power of historical analogies on domestic audiences, it has not examined the effect of historical analogies on foreign publics. Using speeches by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, we investigate whether evoking salient events from the audience country’s past effectively increases popular support for aiding Ukraine. We conducted survey experiments simultaneously in four countries where Zelensky delivered speeches rich in historical analogies – United Kingdom (WWII), United States (Pearl Harbor and 9/11), Germany and Israel …
From Cptpp To Us–Taiwan Initiative On 21st-Century Trade: The Evolution Of Good Regulatory Practices And Its Implications For Taiwan, Han-Wei Liu
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
This paper examines the evolution and implications of Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) – otherwise known as ‘regulatory coherence’ in international trade agreements, focusing on the US-Taiwan Initiative on twenty-first-Century Trade. By comparing GRP frameworks in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), and the US–Taiwan Initiative, the paper highlights the challenges of integrating GRP into Taiwan’s legal system. The analysis reveals significant disparities between GRP requirements and Taiwan’s existing Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in key areas such as public consultation, regulatory impact assessments (RIAs), and sunset review mechanisms. The paper also explores potential …
The Vietnam War And The Regional Context, Wen-Qing Ngoei
The Vietnam War And The Regional Context, Wen-Qing Ngoei
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This chapter traces Southeast Asia’s overall pro-U.S. trajectory from before and through the American war in Vietnam, a process in which the region’s anticommunist nationalists collaborated with the United States and Britain to gain, and remain in, power. Between the late 1940s through the early 1960s, indigenous anticommunist elites in Thailand and the Philippines rose to political dominance with U.S. assistance; in Malaya and Singapore they did so with British support. The United States and Britain, with their Malayan and Singaporean allies, would influence developments within Indonesia that precipitated the Indonesian Army’s rightwing coup of 1965, a transformative event that …
Review Forum : Intervention Before Interventionism : A Global Genealogy. By Patrick Quinton-Brown. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2024., Robbie Shilliam, Lina Benabdallah, Heloise Weber, Craig N. Murphy, Samuel Moyn, Jennifer M. Welsh, Patrick Quinton-Brown
Review Forum : Intervention Before Interventionism : A Global Genealogy. By Patrick Quinton-Brown. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2024., Robbie Shilliam, Lina Benabdallah, Heloise Weber, Craig N. Murphy, Samuel Moyn, Jennifer M. Welsh, Patrick Quinton-Brown
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
What if core concepts in International Relations (IR) yielded multiple interpretations that were connected to various political projects, pursued with differing consequences for global governance? What would be the harm of teaching one interpretation as the only interpretation, connected to the only project, with a singular consequence? How might our analysis of the present and our expectations of the future shift if we pluralized our understandings of the political life of core concepts? Patrick Quinton-Brown's book challenges us to do so with one of the core concepts of IR: intervention.Intervention before interventionism joins recent critiques of the Responsibility to Protect …
A Rose Or A Unicorn? Asean’S Mission Under The Spotlight, Lily Kong
A Rose Or A Unicorn? Asean’S Mission Under The Spotlight, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In a commentary, SMU President Professor Lily Kong explores the question posed by political scientist Donald Emmerson in 1995 - is Southeast Asia more like a vibrant rose or an elusive unicorn? Against the backdrop of the 44th ASEAN Summit, with the theme "Connectivity and Resilience", Prof Kong highlights ASEAN's efforts in fostering regional connectivity and resilience through economic growth, cultural exchanges, and digital advancements. Despite substantial economic integration and digital connectivity, she points out that ASEAN faces challenges in creating a cohesive regional identity. The piece argues for deeper cultural engagement and a focus on shared values to build …
Enhancing Asean-Eu Relations Through Cultural Cooperation: Realities And Unexplored Potential, David Ocon, Lluís Bonet
Enhancing Asean-Eu Relations Through Cultural Cooperation: Realities And Unexplored Potential, David Ocon, Lluís Bonet
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Multilateral cultural exchanges are important to foster mutual understanding and address global challenges. With data gathered through historical analysis, targeted surveys, and expert interviews, the study provides targeted recommendations for policymakers in ASEAN and the EU in developing sustainable cultural cooperation at the multilateral level. How can culture serve as a bridge between Southeast Asian and European societies? How can multilateral cultural cooperation strengthen ASEAN-EU ties and complement existing bilateral cultural cooperation? How can culture support other forms of cooperation?
Visualizing Affective Democracy: Learning Community In China And Taiwan Through Images Of Foreigners, William A. Callahan
Visualizing Affective Democracy: Learning Community In China And Taiwan Through Images Of Foreigners, William A. Callahan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In the past few years, cross-strait relations have been in the news again, especially in terms of China’s hard power reunification strategy and its sharp power influence operations. Indeed, much ink has been spilled about what lessons Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Taiwan’s presidential election in January 2024 has also led to increased analysis on Beijing’s use disinformation, misinformation, and other influence operations to favor candidates more friendly to the PRC. Indeed, Chinese military’s daily testing of Taiwan’s air and sea defense is both a hard power and a sharp power strategy because …
Chinese Visions Of Self And Other: The International Politics Of Noses, William A. Callahan
Chinese Visions Of Self And Other: The International Politics Of Noses, William A. Callahan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
How does China view the world? While much has been written about how China's international relations are best seen as intercultural relations that do not exclude the Other, this article examines how self/Other relations are visualized in terms of the human face in China, in particular through iconic images that construct the Chinese self with and against foreigners with large noses. It employs interpretivist methods to consider the interplay of social relations and international relations in order to see how ‘external appearance’ and ‘external relations’ inform each other in Chinese theory and practice. It mobilizes the classical Chinese concept ‘deep-set …
Whom Do We Learn From? The Impact Of Global Networks And Political Regime Types On E-Government Development, Beomgeun Cho, Karl R. Rethemeyer
Whom Do We Learn From? The Impact Of Global Networks And Political Regime Types On E-Government Development, Beomgeun Cho, Karl R. Rethemeyer
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This study investigates the impact of global networks on e-government development and the role of political regime types in e-government diffusion through international networks. We built a unique social network dataset that covers 148 countries for the years between 2003 and 2014. Our network dataset is rooted in two assumptions: 1) international organizations serve as peak organizations for international policy networks, 2) public managers who participate in international e-government conferences held by the UN and OECD work as boundary spanners. Our empirical evidence suggests that countries well embedded in global e-government networks receive ideas for public sector innovation from international …
Chinese Global Orders: Socialism, Tradition, And Nation In China-Russia Relations, William A. Callahan
Chinese Global Orders: Socialism, Tradition, And Nation In China-Russia Relations, William A. Callahan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
While many use rational IR theory to explain Chinese foreign policy behavior, this paper follows global IR to employ interpretivist theory to examine how Chinese elites understand their country’s role in the world. In particular, it explores the Chinese global order ideas of socialism, tradition, and nation through a comparative analysis of how they work in China–Russia relations, especially after China’s 20th Communist Party Congress in 2022. The first section presents a critical analysis of the realist understanding of the China–Russia–U.S. strategic triangle. It argues that the socialist concept of “united front work” better explains Chinese (and Russian) policy in …
Two Responsibilities To Protect, Patrick Quinton-Brown
Two Responsibilities To Protect, Patrick Quinton-Brown
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The purpose of this paper is to re-theorize the evolution of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) in the UN through to 2011, the apogee of liberal interventionism in the post-Cold War period. Contrary to a common argument in existing literature, and notwithstanding the adoption of the concept as an annual agenda item of the General Assembly, international contestation is not about implementation as neatly separated from meaning, but rather definition or interpretation. To better understand the boundaries of intergovernmental understanding, we need to interrogate the language or terms of the debate, particularly the ways in which those terms have been …
British Neo-Colonialism In Malaya And Singapore, And U.S. Empire In The Pacific, Wen-Qing Ngoei
British Neo-Colonialism In Malaya And Singapore, And U.S. Empire In The Pacific, Wen-Qing Ngoei
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay places the Vietnam War upon the larger canvas of Southeast and East Asian history by studying the long shadow that Britain’s Empire cast over U.S. entanglements across the region. It shows how British officials in Malaya and Singapore directly contributed to the expansion of US involvement in post-1945 Southeast Asia, as well as the overall pro-US trajectory of the region well before the Americanization of the Vietnam conflict.
Understanding South Korean Middle Power Diplomacy Discourses Through The Concept Of Sadae (Serving The Great), Young Chul Cho, William A. Callahan
Understanding South Korean Middle Power Diplomacy Discourses Through The Concept Of Sadae (Serving The Great), Young Chul Cho, William A. Callahan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This study aims to examine South Korean middle power diplomacy discourses using premodern Korea’s diplomatic thinking-cum-practice of sadae (serving the great) as a heuristic device. It is argued that current discourses of South Korea as a middle power resonate with sadae because they strive to secure the existing liberal international order led by the West and the United States. It also argues that it is both necessary and healthy for South Korean middle power diplomacy studies to denaturalize its self-evident faith in the existing liberal international order—a not universal but particular order among several possible others in history—with South Korea …
Geopolitical Geometries In China-Russia Relations, William A. Callahan
Geopolitical Geometries In China-Russia Relations, William A. Callahan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Strategists in Beijing tend to think of geopolitics in terms of geometries, especially strategic triangles and the concentric circles of tianxia (“all under heaven”).China’s strategic triangles should be understood as United Front Work, which are intended to join with one group of ‘friends’ to isolate and attack another group of ‘enemies’.Both China and Russia present their own models of global concentric circles. Here China and Russia are each at the centre of their own world orders, and each is at the periphery of the other’s, which eventually will lead to conflict.
Survival Politics: Regime Security And Alliance Institutionalization, Inwook Kim, Jackson Woods
Survival Politics: Regime Security And Alliance Institutionalization, Inwook Kim, Jackson Woods
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
What determines states’ willingness to institutionalize alliances? Contrary to conventional emphasis on system-level conditions, we argue that states pay close attention to the domestic political consequences of institutionalizing alliances. This is particularly true for unequal allies. Client regimes are disproportionately sensitive to alliance design, as it affects patron allies’ ability to influence their military, distribute finance and arms, and legitimate preferred political groups. Two factors—power consolidation and political compatibility—determine whether the client views alliance institutionalization as complementary or conflictual with regime survival. The divergent alliance designs North and South Korea chose after the Korean War support our argument. An unresolved …
Singapore: Treading Carefully Between Jostling Great Powers, Singapore Management University
Singapore: Treading Carefully Between Jostling Great Powers, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
The island state’s unique understanding of Western and East Asian cultures makes it an ideal interpreter between the U.S. and China, says SMU Chairman Ho Kwon Ping
Foreword To The Special Issue On "Building A Sustainable Future: New Asian Regionalism In International Economic Law", Pasha L. Hsieh
Foreword To The Special Issue On "Building A Sustainable Future: New Asian Regionalism In International Economic Law", Pasha L. Hsieh
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
We live in an unprecedented time, which witnesses the rapid transformation of global trade and politics. The neoliberal legal order in the post-war era has recently encountered multifaceted threats. Rising populist nationalism, US-China tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic have led to diverse forms of trade protectionism that has eroded the normative basis of international economic law. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and corresponding economic sanctions have further worsened the instability of the increasingly fragile supply chain and multilateral trading system. Amid these challenges, new Asian regionalism has emerged to shape and construct the new regional economic order. In response to …
Barking Without Biting: Understanding Chinese Media Campaigns During Foreign Policy Disputes, Frances Yaping Wang
Barking Without Biting: Understanding Chinese Media Campaigns During Foreign Policy Disputes, Frances Yaping Wang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
What motivates Chinese media campaigns during foreign policy disputes and how are they carried out? “Influence campaigns” are often recognized as highly pertinent to international security, yet they remain understudied. This paper develops and tests a theory that explains these media campaigns as strategic actions to align domestic public opinion when it deviates from the state’s preferred foreign policy, exploiting the media’s mobilization or pacification effect. These divergent media effects correspond to two types of media campaigns respectively – the mobilization campaigns and the pacification campaigns. The pacification campaigns are particularly important because they indicate that hawkish rhetoric may counterintuitively …
The United States And The "Chinese Problem" Of Southeast Asia, Wen-Qing Ngoei
The United States And The "Chinese Problem" Of Southeast Asia, Wen-Qing Ngoei
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay examines how US Cold War policy toward all of Southeast Asia arose from American suspicions that the region's Chinese diaspora would align itself with the Chinese communists against the west. In so doing, it explores how US distrust of the Chinese diaspora fell in step with a longer imperialist tradition practised not only by the European powers for centuries, but also the Japanese Empire during its brief ascendancy during World War Two. Additionally, the essay proposes that to move beyond the bilateral studies that dominate the histories of US-Southeast Asian relations to view the region as whole, it …
Re-Thinking Region: Us-Southeast Asian Relations In The Twentieth Century, Wen-Qing Ngoei, Anne Foster
Re-Thinking Region: Us-Southeast Asian Relations In The Twentieth Century, Wen-Qing Ngoei, Anne Foster
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay, co-authored with historian Anne Foster, introduces a roundtable of journal articles that explore new ways to advance the study of Southeast Asia's relations with the United States in the twentieth century. It explains the importance of examining the region, how it is of world historical importance to the big powers, and merits different and innovative analyses given its significance to current affairs.
Looking Back On Asean And The Sino-Us Rivalry In The Cold War, Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei
Looking Back On Asean And The Sino-Us Rivalry In The Cold War, Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In discussions of the current Sino-US rivalry, talk of China eclipsing America as the world’s foremost power is popular. Analysts seeking signs of US decline can certainly muster suitable evidence with which to argue this case. In Southeast Asia, a major theatre of Sino-US competition for influence, trade and security ties, there are serious concerns over which of the two powers will end up predominant in regional affairs. In fact, America and its Southeast Asian allies faced a similar challenge in the Cold War. Then as now, most of the attention was on the big powers. But, the agency of …
Important Not To Let Hsr Termination Hobble Further Cooperation, Tan K. B. Eugene
Important Not To Let Hsr Termination Hobble Further Cooperation, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Strong people-to-people ties can help temper political histrionics, moderate negative impact on political ties. The tantalising prospect of being able to leave Singapore and arrive in Kuala Lumpur in just 90 minutes remains a pipe dream after the High Speed Rail (HSR) agreement was terminated last Friday, along with what could have been an important confidence booster to bilateral ties between Singapore and Malaysia.
The Human Development And Capabilities Approach As A Twenty-First Century Ideology Of Globalization, Devin K. Joshi
The Human Development And Capabilities Approach As A Twenty-First Century Ideology Of Globalization, Devin K. Joshi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
While many scholars have analysed neo-liberalism (i.e. market globalism) as an ideology of globalization, much less is known about alternative and emerging ideologies that challenge neoliberalism on a global scale. Addressing this gap, I critically examine the ‘human development and capabilities approach’ (HDCA) as a counter-ideology to neoliberalism promoted by the United Nations. Applying morphological discourse analysis and incorporating critical insights from recent work by Manfred Steger and Paul James, this study demonstrates how the HDCA (i.e. capabilities globalism) functions as a well-developed ideology steeped in a global imaginary. Yet, despite having multiple strengths, HDCA morphology and deployment have limited …
The Effect Of Language On Voter Opinion: Results From A Survey Experiment In Thailand, Jacob I. Ricks
The Effect Of Language On Voter Opinion: Results From A Survey Experiment In Thailand, Jacob I. Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Politicians have long engaged in marketing themselves by employing distinct speaking styles to signal social standing, competence, or a shared background with their audience. What effect does this use of different language appeals have on voter opinion? Utilizing a survey experiment in Thailand, I test a set of hypotheses about the effect of language on respondent opinions. Relying on three distinct treatments, a formal language register, an informal language register, and an ethnic language, I demonstrate the multiple effects of language on political appeal. The use of a formal register has mixed effects, signaling both high education as well as …
The Dog That Barks: Understanding Propaganda Campaigns On Territorial Disputes, Frances Yaping Wang
The Dog That Barks: Understanding Propaganda Campaigns On Territorial Disputes, Frances Yaping Wang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Why do authoritarian states promote media coverage of foreign disputes in some contexts, but censor coverage in others? The use of media on matters of foreign policy is prevalent in both autocracies and democracies, yet their functions, especially in autocracies, are not well understood. This dissertation seeks to explain a statecraft autocratic leaders are especially adept at and are commonly engaged in – propaganda campaigns on territorial disputes. This project thus provides a window into the domestic constraints and motivations of authoritarian foreign policy and the resulting statecraft in managing its domestic publics on foreign policy issues. In explaining the …
Time Running Out To End U.S. - China Trade War, Singapore Management University
Time Running Out To End U.S. - China Trade War, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
The world watches on as China’s rise and controversial trade practices trigger a U.S. reaction
There And Back Again: What The Cold War For Southeast Asia Can Teach Us About Sino-Us Competition In The Region Today, Wen-Qing Ngoei
There And Back Again: What The Cold War For Southeast Asia Can Teach Us About Sino-Us Competition In The Region Today, Wen-Qing Ngoei
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Expert commentary today typically focuses on the agendas and actions of the two big powers, the United States and China, which misses the bigger picture. During the Cold War, leaders of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) played a critical role in containing Chinese influence, shaping the terms of Sino-U.S. competition and rapprochement, and deepening the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia. The legacy of ASEAN’s foreign relations during and since the Cold War militates against the popular notion that Chinese hegemony in Asia is inevitable.