In Defense of Non-Visionaries

Many of the recent tributes for Margaret Thatcher following her death celebrated her as a “transformational” leader who brought about great changes. There were frequent references to her equally transformational American counterpart, Ronald Reagan. But a more interesting comparison is with her other presidential contemporary, George H. W. Bush.

Though often dismissed as a mere “transactional” manager, Bush had one of the best foreign-policy records of the past half-century. His administration managed the end of the Cold War, the dismantlement of the Soviet Union, and the unification of Germany within NATO – all without violence. At the same time, he led a broad United Nations-backed coalition that repelled Saddam Hussein’s aggression against Kuwait. Had he dropped any of the balls he was juggling, today’s world would be much worse.

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Source: project-syndicate.org

Work With China, Don’t Contain It

CITING an escalating dispute over islands in the East China Sea, The Economist warned last week that “China and Japan are sliding toward war.” That assessment may be too alarmist, but the tensions have bolstered the efforts of some American analysts who have urged a policy to “contain” China.

During a recent visit to China, I was struck by how many Chinese officials believe such a policy is already in place and is the central purpose of President Obama’s “pivot” toward Asia. “The pivot is a very stupid choice,” Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations, declared publicly. “The United States has achieved nothing and only annoyed China. China can’t be contained,” he added.

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Source: The New York Times

Asian Nationalism at Sea

CAMBRIDGE—Will war break out in the seas of East Asia? After Chinese and Japanese nationalists staged competing occupations of the barren landmasses that China refers to as the Diaoyu Islands and Japan calls the Senkaku Islands, angry demonstrators in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu chanted, “We must kill all Japanese.”

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Source: project-syndicate.org

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Japan Chair hosted the release of a new report co-chaired by Richard L. Armitage, President of Armitage International and former Deputy Secretary of State, and Joseph S. Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University.

This is the third report on U.S.-Japan relations and U.S. strategy in Asia co-chaired by Richard L. Armitage and Joseph S. Nye. Amb. The report is available for download on the CSIS website.

Source: csis.org

Joseph Nye gives the keynote address at the launch of Macquarie University’s Soft Power and Advocacy Research Centre (SPARC) where the research focus will be the function of the media in South Asia and China.

Source: youtube.com

Forum for New Diplomacy

Joseph S. Nye Jr., a University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University, and Serge Schmemann, Editorial Page Editor at the International Herald Tribune, discuss power and diplomacy.

(New York Times, January 27, 2012)

Source: The New York Times

The Obama-Hu Summit: Part II

The summit served a useful purpose in improving atmospherics. Obama said the US welcomed the rise of China (something I remember hearing Bill Clinton tell Jiang Zemin in 1995), and at the State Department luncheon I attended, Hu spoke of becoming a responsible great power. Now we will wait to see if Chinese behavior changes when he gets back home. It is interesting to note that China is running a billboard advertisement in Times Square in New York as part of its soft power campaign. As I argue in The Future of Power, if Chinese soft power increases in the US and American soft power increases in China, that can be a win-win situation in conflict avoidance. Polls now show about half of the American public has a positive view of China. But release of Liu Xiaobo from prison would do a lot more for China’s soft power than Hu’s admission yesterday that China still has a way to go on human rights!

(Huffington Post, January 20, 2011)

Source: The Huffington Post

Japan’s Options

The current tensions between China and Japan have revived talk about how far Japan has fallen since its glory years of the 1980’s. To the extent that this sense of decline is grounded in reality, can Japan recover?

(Project Syndicate, November 10, 2010)

Source: project-syndicate.org

The Pros and Cons of Citizen Diplomacy

Global politics has become a contest of competitive credibility. The world of traditional power politics was typically about whose military or economy wins, but in an information age, power is also about whose story wins.

(New York Times, October 4, 2010)

Source: The New York Times

China’s Bad Bet Against America

Chinese-American relations are, once again, in a downswing. China objected to President Barack Obama’s receiving the Dalai Lama in the White House, as well as to the administration’s arms sales to Taiwan. There was ample precedent for both American decisions, but some Chinese leaders expected Obama to be more sensitive to what China sees as its “core interests” in national unity.

(Project Syndicate, March 10, 2010)

Source: project-syndicate.org