From Allies to Enemies: Visions of Modernity, Identity, and US-China Diplomacy, 1945-1960

摘要

In the rapidly growing field of new Cold War history, realist interpretations of international relations are decidedly out of fashion. When we can look closely at the decision-making of all parties involved - at the misperceptions, prejudices, uncertainties and mistakes of key players, at their domestic environments and institutional pressures - the abstract "national interests" paradigm loses its compelling force. Simei Qing's account of Sino-American relations in the early Cold War fits nicely within the broader trends of post-realist scholarship; she sets out to explain how "deeply anchored visions" affected policy-making in Beijing and Washington, how "both China and America ... repeatedly failed to reach intended foreign policy objectives because they persistently failed to understand the ocean of historian currents that deeply underlay the other side's core policy assumptions or cultural visions of modernity and identity" (pp. 2, 298). Qing takes up a daunting challenge, for modernity and identity are notoriously murky categories, which are difficult to pin down, and even more difficult to connect to actual policy decisions. Overall, Qing's thesis passes with flying colours, though not without sliding at times into inevitable generalizations.