Conclusions

2019 ◽  
pp. 259-276
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Taliaferro
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
The Core ◽  
Ultimate Objective

Chapter 7 undertakes three tasks. First, it summarizes the core theoretical argument and the empirical support for the neoclassical realist theory, nuclear domino theory, credible sanctions theory, and security commitment theory hypotheses found inthe previous four chapters. The main take-away of the book is the following: The nonproliferation strategies the United States pursued toward vulnerable allies in the Middle East, East Asia, and South Asia were inextricably linked to broader Cold War dynamics, as tempered by each administration’s ability to mobilize support or defuse opposition in Congress. The ultimate objective of each administration, from Kennedy to H. W. Bush, was to contain the Soviet Union's influence in the Middle East and South Asia or to enlist China as an ally of convenience against the Soviets in East Asia. Second, Chapter 7 highlights several theoretical implications of this argument and avenues for future research. Third, the chapter briefly considers what neoclassical realist theory would suggest for some dilemmas in contemporary US foreign policy.

Defending Frenemies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Taliaferro
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
Time Horizons

Defending Frenemies examines the nonproliferation strategies that the United States pursued toward vulnerable and often obstreperous allies in three volatile regions of the globe, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. It presents a historical and comparative analysis of how successive US presidential administrations (those of John F. Kennedy to George H. W. Bush) employed inducements and coercive diplomacy toward Israel, Pakistan, South Korea, and Taiwan over nuclear proliferation. Building upon neoclassical realism, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro argues that regional power dynamics and US domestic politics shaped the types of nonproliferation strategies pursued. The overriding goals of successive administrations were to contain the growth of the Soviet Union’s influence in the Middle East and South Asia, as well as to enlist China as an ally of convenience against the Soviets in East Asia. Weaker allies’ nuclear proliferation could facilitate or complicate the realization of those goals. When policymakers perceived an unfavorable regional power distribution and short-time horizons for emerging threats to US interests, they were inclined to pursue accommodative strategies toward an ally. Conversely, when they perceived a favorable regional power distribution and longer time horizons for threats, they were inclined to pursue coercive nonproliferation strategies toward an ally. However, congressional opposition to certain arms transfers and to nonproliferation legislation sometimes led administrations to pursue hybrid strategies—combining coercive and accommodating elements—toward nuclear proliferating allies.

English in Asia, Asian Englishes, and the issue of proficiency

English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Issue

ABSTRACTThe contemporary visibility and importance of English throughout the Asian region coupled with the emergence and development of distinct varieties of Asian Englishes have played an important part in the global story of English in recent years. Across Asia, the numbers of people having at least a functional command of the language have grown exponentially over the last four decades, and current changes in the sociolinguistic realities of the region are often so rapid that it is difficult for academic commentators to keep pace. One basic issue in the telling of this story is the question of what it is we mean by the term ‘Asia’, itself a word of contested etymology, whose geographical reference has ranged in application from the Middle East to Central Asia, and from the Indian sub-continent to Japan and Korea. In this article, my discussion will focus on the countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, as it is in these regions that we find not only the greatest concentration of ‘outer-circle’ English-using societies but also a number of the most populous English-learning and English-knowing nations in the world.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
David J Ulbrich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Culture Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Pacific Basin ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
World War ◽  
The Pacific

The introduction to this anthology connects a diverse collection of essays that examine the 1940s as the critical decade in the United States’ ascendance in the Pacific Rim. Following the end of World War II, the United States assumed the hegemonic role in the region when Japan’s defeat created military and political vacuums in the region. It is in this context that this anthology stands not only as a précis of current scholarship but also as a prospectus for future research. The contributors’ chapters eschew the traditional focus on military operations that has dominated the historiography of 1940s in the Pacific Basin and East Asia. Instead, the contributors venture into areas of race, gender, technology, culture, media, diplomacy, and institutions, all of which add nuance and clarity to the existing literature of World War II and the early Cold War.

Wars of Modern Babylon

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pesach Malovany ◽  
Ya'akov Amidror ◽  
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak ◽  
Kevin M. Woods
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
The Core ◽  
Saddam Hussein ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

This book describes the history of the Iraqi Army from its establishment in 1921 until its collapse in 2003 in the war against the Coalition Forces, the core of which was a highly intensive 24-year period under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. It analyzes the development and activities of this army, and focuses on the major wars in which it participated during Saddam’s regime: the prolonged war against Iran (1980-1988) and the two wars against the Coalition Forces led by the United States (1991 and 2003), as well as the wars against Israel and the Kurds in earlier periods. The book is based mostly on Iraqi sources—Newspapers and other media means, books and documents, and presents all this mostly from the Iraqi perspective. Its major innovation lies in its presenting this topic to the reader—including all the elements of the construction of the Iraqi fighting force, its war strategies, its functioning on all levels (strategic, operative and tactical), its forces and branches, its command and many other subjects—in a comprehensive, detailed manner,. My experience in dealing with military issues in the Middle East during my long service with the Israeli Military Intelligence helped me very much in dealing with this huge Army, and to understand its concepts, its historical roots and the way it was conducting its war, The Wars of Modern Babylon.

Unequal Foundations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hitlin ◽  
Sarah K. Harkness
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Emotions ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Individual Outcomes

This book offers a novel theory and an original use of cross-cultural data to argue that the level of economic inequality in a society is reflected in the emotional experience of its members. People living in societies with greater equality experience more positive, binding emotions on a regular basis, while people living in unequal societies, like the United States, are significantly more likely to regularly experience negative, sanctioning moral emotions. We develop the idea that morality operates at both the societal and individual levels, and develop the thesis that individual moral emotions represent the distal structure of society. We bridge a number of areas in social science, including morality, inequality, social psychology, and the study of emotions. A good deal of work explains how being economically advantaged (or not) contributes to individual tastes, beliefs, values, and choices. Very little work links the extent of the advantages within a society to individual outcomes. We suggest that being advantaged in a relatively equal society leads to different experiences and shared cultures than being advantaged in a highly unequal society. We offer a novel use of established data from a tool drawn from the well-established Affect Control Theory tradition to demonstrate empirical support for our theory. As such, we go beyond previous work by showing data that supports our theory using a method that is designed for cross-cultural comparative research. We aim for this book to stimulate future work via different tools to test our theoretical argument.

A Comparative Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Marat
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Local Dynamics ◽  
Public Pressure

Chapter 9 applies the book’s main theoretical argument outside the post-Soviet region, examining competitive authoritarian regimes in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The chapter focuses on the local dynamics of authoritarian policing in democratic countries, as well as outbursts of democratic activism in deeply authoritarian states where the rationale for the use of force has been contested by bottom-up mobilization. Case studies of police transformation as a result of violence and subsequent public pressure are examined in the United States, Tunisia, Moldova and Mongolia. The chapter also analyzes instances of backlash in Venezuela, where public protests resulted in the expansion and toughening of state policing.

The United States and Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Program, 1975–1990

2019 ◽  
pp. 112-159
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Taliaferro
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Assistance

Chapter 4 examines the proliferation dispute between the United States and Pakistan. As with the Middle East, averting containment failure in South Asia was the overriding aim of the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations. Slowing or halting the clandestine Pakistani nuclear weapons program was always a subordinate goal. The Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was the turning point. Chapter 4 examines the oscillations in US nonproliferation policies toward Pakistan, from the Ford administration’s offer of advanced fighters for nuclear restraint in 1975–1976, to the Carter administration’s imposition of sanctions in early1979, to the Reagan administration’s provision of a $1.4 billion foreign military assistance package and efforts to circumvent nonproliferation legislation in exchange for Pakistani dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s pledge not to cross four nuclear “red lines” from 1981 to 1988, to the George H. W. Bush administration’s resumption of sanctions after the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1990.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
pp. 160-186
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Future Research ◽  
World War ◽  
The Core ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
Significant Support

The Conclusion summarizes the volume and extends its findings. The chapter first reviews the evidence in chapters 2-5, emphasizing that there is significant empirical support for the argument developed in chapter 1. In contrast, alternative explanations do not fare well in the case studies. Next, the chapter provides additional tests of the theory by discussing the British, Russian, and German responses to the declines of Austria-Hungary and France from the mid nineteenth century through World War I in light of predation theory; again, the history offers significant support for the core argument. Lastly, the Conclusion discusses implications of the volume for scholarship, policy debates – particularly surrounding the rise of China – and future research.

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