America after Iraq

America won an asymmetric war in Iraq and lost an asymmetric peace. Translating material power advantage into favourable political outcomes has been a challenge for great powers down the ages—what makes this bridge even more difficult to cross today is the raised expectations on the part of liberal publics about the moral purpose of US‐led interventions. In this sense, Iraq is part of the explanation for why influential liberals believe there is a ‘crisis’ in America's world leadership. ‘America after Iraq’ subjects this claim to analytical scrutiny—in particular it addresses whether Iraq was simply a chapter in a longer book detailing American power and purpose in the post‐9/11 world? In answering this question the article is drawn to consider conceptual debates about a shift in the international system from anarchy to hierarchy with the US as the hegemonic power. While it rejects strong versions of the hierarchy thesis that imply the Washington is the new Rome, it is nevertheless drawn to an understanding of a hierarchical form of ordering where the US oscillates between a hegemonic role and an imperial outlaw. Seen through this lens, the Iraq War was an intervention that happened because it could, and not because it was just or necessary. Public opinion and the weakness of domestic institutions are also critical factors in explaining how it was possible for a previously status‐quo oriented hegemonic power to act recklessly and put the rules and institutions of international society under strain.     

Strategizing Britain's role in the world

In recent commentaries on British foreign policy, the New Labour and coalition governments have been criticized for lacking strategic thinking. Academics describe a ‘strategy gap’ and note that old ideas about Britain's role in the world, such as Churchill's 1948 reference to ‘three circles’, continue to be recycled. Parliamentarians bemoan the ‘uncritical acceptance of these assumptions’ that has led to ‘a waning of our interests in, and ability to make, National Strategy’. This article argues that a primary problem has been the lack of consideration of how identity, strategy and action interrelate in foreign policy. Using the insights of role theory, the article seeks to address this by outlining six ideal‐type role orientations that the UK might fulfil in world politics, namely: isolate, influential (rule of law state), regional partner, thought leader, opportunist–interventionist power and Great Power. By considering how variations in a state's disposition towards the external environment translate into different policy directions, the article aims both to highlight the range of roles available to policy‐makers and to emphasize that policy often involves making a choice between them. Failure to recognize this has resulted in role conflicts and policy confusion. In setting out a variety of different role orientations, the author offers a route to introducing a genuine strategic sensibility to policy‐making, one that links identity with policy goals and outcomes.     

“Melismas medievales” en Concierto Barroco: enumeración y artificiosidad de Alejo Carpentier

The distinction between condensation, proliferation, and substitution defines, according to Severo Sarduy, the tenets of the Latin American neobarroque movement. This article, though sympathetic to the ideas of Sarduy, aims at clarifying the terms in which Alejo Carpentier conducts a recreation and evocation of the baroque movement in Europe and America. Taking Leo Spitzer's definition of chaotic enumeration as a focal point, it aims to clarify the mechanisms of literary composition in Carpentier. It argues that Carpentier's vision relies on an absolute yet universal and inclusive role of America in the shaping of the modern world.     

‘Suppose They were to Do It in Mexico’: The Spanish Embargo and Its Influence on Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy

The US arms embargo during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) can play a key role in our understanding of the transformation of American strategic thought in the late 1930s. The embargo's most well-documented causes are isolationist sentiment, the influence of the Catholic vote in the New Deal coalition and the forceful diplomatic leadership of Britain's Foreign Office in European affairs. Less well known is the importance of Latin America, which was considered throughout the conflict in the debates about lifting the Spanish embargo. This article examines the Spanish embargo and the reasons behind it. It also analyzes the Latin American dimension of Roosevelt's Spanish policy. By doing so it reveals how the perceived threat of Fascist penetration in Latin America influenced US diplomacy regarding Spain. Since that threat was first perceived, Washington began to fear the consequences of a Francoist military victory. It considered that the success of German and Italian military interventions in Spain could encourage similar initiatives in Latin America. The lessons learned in Spain reinforced Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy in Latin America and, at the same time, also provided a subtle reasoning for abandoning continental isolationism.     

Normalizing US–Cuba relations: escaping the shackles of the past

President Barack Obama explained his historic reversal of half a century of US antagonism towards Cuba as necessary because of the failure of the policy of hostility pursued by his ten predecessors. But the old policy's failure was not new, and thus was not, in itself, an adequate explanation for the dramatic shift. This article uses theories of agenda‐setting, policy failure and policy change to explain the persistence of the US policy of hostility from 1959 to 2014 and the policy change announced by President Barack Obama in December 2014. Four structural factors account for the continuity in policy and, as a result of gradual changes in those factors, the eventual policy shift. They are: the security threat Cuba posed to the United States during the Cold War; the political influence of the Cuban American community; the diplomatic cost to Washington, especially in Latin America, of maintaining the status quo; and domestic changes under way in Cuba.     

Engagement or empire? American power and the international order

Three recent surveys of American foreign relations lie at the intersection of topical academic and policy debates. Robert Lieber's Eagle rules? makes a case for American primacy as a precondition for global stability, and in so doing reflects an agenda for US foreign policy that is broadly associated with the current Bush administration. By contrast, Joseph Nye's The paradox of American power argues against US unilateralism, and may be read as an implicit critique of the apparent recent shift in American strategy. Nevertheless, both Lieber and Nye make a case for extensive American engagement with the world as a basis for international stability. By contrast, Chalmers Johnson's Blowback views America's global ‘engagement’ as a thinly disguised diplomatic veil for imperialism. Although they make very different arguments, these three books are usefully considered together. Nye's stress on the importance of soft power, multilateral diplomacy and wider structural changes in the nature of world politics is a useful corrective to Lieber's emphasis on US primacy. But Johnson is right to criticize the excessive and ultimately counter‐productive level of military involvement of the United States around the world. In the absence of a more effective global balance of power, the preconditions for a robust system of international diplomacy as well as the management of globalization will not be satisfied.     

China's strategic partnership with Latin America: a fulcrum in China's rise

China has over the last two decades been committed to creating a strategic partnership with Latin American states by persistently extending its economic and political involvement in the continent. China's efforts in this regard reflect not only its desire to intensify its economic cooperation and political relations with nations in Latin America, but also its strategic goals of creating its own sphere of influence in the region and enhancing its ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power in order to elevate China's status at the systemic level. With access to Latin American markets, resources and investment destinations, China may sustain its economic and social progress that bases its long cherished dream of restoring its past glory of fuqiang (wealth and power) and rise as a global power capable of reshaping the current world system. The enormous economic benefits deriving from their economic cooperation and trade may persuade Latin American nations to accept the basic premise of China's economic strategy: that China's rise is not a threat, but an opportunity to gain wealth and prosperity. This will help China gain more ‘soft’ power in and leverage over its economic partners in Latin America, and thereby help it to rise in the global power hierarchy.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this issue. International Relations theory The global commonwealth of citizens: toward cosmopolitan democracy. By Daniele Archibugi. Order, conflict, and violence. Edited by Stathis N. Kalyvas, Ian Shapiro and Tarek Masoud. Human rights and ethics Torture and democracy. By Darius Rejali. Sexual enslavement of girls and women worldwide. By Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings. International law and organization International justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: virtual trials and the struggle for state cooperation. By Victor A. Peskin. Humanitarian intervention after Kosovo: Iraq, Darfur and the record of global civil society. By Aidan Hehir. Foreign policy America and the world: conversations on the future of American foreign policy. By Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft and David Ignatius. Conflict, security and armed forces Does peacekeeping work? Shaping belligerents’ choices after civil war. By Virginia Page Fortna. Fighting terror: ethical dilemmas. By Alex J. Bellamy. Twilight war: the folly of US space dominance. By Mike Moore. Global non‐proliferation and counter‐terrorism: the impact of UNSCR 1540. Edited by Olivia Bosch and Peter van Ham. National missile defense and the politics of US identity: a postcultural critique. By Natalie Bormann. The way of the world: a story of truth and hope in an age of extremism. By Ron Suskind. Political economy, economics and development The shape of the world to come: charting the geopolitics of a new century. By Laurent Cohen‐Tanugi. Globalization, regionalization and business: conflict, convergence and influence. By Marc Schelhase. Energy and environment The end of food. By Paul Roberts. History Great Britain and the creation of Yugoslavia: negotiating Balkan nationality and identity. By James Evans. The voices of the dead: Stalin's great terror in the 1930s. By Hiroaki Kuromiya. Europe Explaining institutional change in Europe. By Adrienne Héritier. European defence policy: beyond the nation state. By Frédéric Mérand. Turkish accession to the EU: satisfying the Copenhagen criteria. By Eric Faucompret and Jozef Konings. Serbia in the shadow of Milo?evi?: the legacy of conflict in the Balkans. By Janine N. Clark. Spanish politics: democracy after dictatorship. By Omar G. Encarnación. Russia and Eurasia Oilopoly: Putin, power and the new Russia. By Marshall Goldman. Russian civil–military relations: Putin's legacy. By Thomas Gomart. Axis of convenience: Moscow, Beijing, and the new geopolitics. By Bobo Lo. Middle East and North Africa Harmonizing foreign policy: Turkey, the EU and the Middle East. By Mesut Özcan. Sub‐Saharan Africa Africa: altered states, ordinary miracles. By Richard Dowden. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon?: Africa and China. Edited by Kweku Ampiah and Sanusha Naidu. China returns to Africa: a rising power and a continent embrace. Edited by Chris Alden, Daniel Large and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira. China into Africa: trade, aid and influence. Edited by Robert I. Rotberg. Gulliver's troubles: Nigeria's foreign policy after the Cold War. Edited by Adekeye Adebajo and Abdul Raufu Mustapha. Becoming Somaliland. By Mark Bradbury. Crude continent: the struggle for Africa's oil prize. By Duncan Clarke. Asia and Pacific Descent into chaos: how the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. By Ahmed Rashid. Korea. By Christoph Bluth. Butcher and bolt. By David Loyn. North America The American civilizing process. By Stephen Mennell. Latin America and Caribbean US presidents and Latin American interventions: pursuing regime change in the Cold War. By Michael Grow.     

Living with Giants and Inconvenient Truths: The US,China, and Everyone Else

ABSTRACT

The Trump administration is redefining the traditional post-World War II approach to American foreign policy, preferring an “America First” approach instead. At the same time, China is becoming increasingly assertive on the world stage, willing to throw its weight around and threaten smaller countries over any perceived slight. For the smaller countries who viewed the United States as a reliable security partner and China as an increasingly important trade partner, the world is looking increasingly uncertain. This uncertainty is compounded by the Trump administration’s more confrontational approach in its China policy. Other states, including Canada, are trying to navigate between a reluctant Washington and a temperamental and brash Beijing. This article argues that a major reset of US-China relations was both inevitable and needed. That said, it is not so much what the Trump administration is doing, but how it is doing it that is the problem. With its heavy-handed “America First” policies, the Trump administration risks losing the support of other states needed to push back against China.     

Sino–American relations and the ‘Australian factor’: inflated expectations or discriminate engagement?

Orchestrating relations between its American security ally and increasingly crucial Chinese trading partner constitutes perhaps the major foreign policy challenge now confronting Australia. The Howard government insists that it can pursue such diplomacy without having to choose between the US and China in the event of a future great power regional confrontation. Both Washington and Beijing, however, appear intent on pulling Australia into their own orbits of influence. This article contends that neither of them will be content to allow Australia to apply a ‘discriminate engagement’ policy toward their own regional interests if Sino–American strategic competition intensifies over Taiwan or throughout the Asia–Pacific region. It reviews Chinese and American strategic expectations regarding Australia and their response to that country's relations with the other, and outlines growing policy imperatives that Australia must confront in order to overcome current anomalies in its ‘dual strategy’ directed toward China and the United States.     

Book reviews

Book Reviewed in this articles. International Relations theory Security as practice: discourse analysis and the Bosnian war. By Lene Hansen. Informal coalitions: mastering the hidden dynamics of organizational change. By Chris Rodgers. The anarchical society in a globalized world. Edited by Richard Little and John Williams. Human rights and ethics Guantánamo and the abuse of presidential power. By Joseph Margulies. Complicity with evil: the United Nations in the age of modern genocide. By Adam LeBor. International law and organization Max Planck commentaries on world trade law: world economic order, world trade law. Edited by Peter‐Tobias Stoll and Frank Schorkopf. Max Planck commentaries on world trade law: institutions and dispute settlement. Edited by Rüdiger Wolfrum, Peter‐Tobias Stoll and Karen Kaiser. Key issues in WTO dispute settlement: the first ten years. Edited by Rufus Yerxa and Bruce Wilson. Crimes against humanity. By Geoffrey Robertson. Laws of fear: beyond the precautionary principle. By Cass R. Sunstein. Democracy, minorities and international law. By Steven Wheatley. Foreign policy Seize the hour: when Nixon met Mao. By Margaret MacMillan. Conflict, security and armed forces Nation‐building: beyond Afghanistan and Iraq. Edited by Francis Fukuyama. Kosovo between war and peace: nationalism, peacebuilding and international trusteeship. Edited by Tonny Brems Knudsen and Carsten Bagge Laustsen. Empire in denial: the politics of state‐building. By David Chandler. The age of war: the United States confronts the world. By Gabriel Kolko. Terror on the internet: the new arena, the new challenges. By Gabriel Weimann. Political economy, economics and development The World Economic Forum: a multi‐stakeholder approach to global governance. By Geoffrey Allen Pigman. Mapping the markets: a guide to stockmarket analysis. By Deborah Owen and Robin Griffiths. Ethnicity and cultural politics Islam and global dialogue: religious pluralism and the pursuit of peace. Edited by Roger Boase. Energy and environment Field notes from a catastrophe: climate change: is time running out? By Elizabeth Kolbert. History Stalin's wars: from world war to Cold War, 1939–53. By Geoffrey Roberts. Suez 1956: the inside story of the first oil war. By Barry Turner. Keith Kyle died on 21 February 2007. He will be much missed by all at Chatham House and particularly by the editors of International Affairs, not least for his authoritative articles and reviews, and generous advice. Twelve days: revolution 1956. By Victor Sebestyen Churchill's man of mystery: Desmond Morton and the world of intelligence. By Gill Bennett. The battle for Spain: the Spanish civil war 1936‐1939. By Antony Beevor. Europe The new Atlanticist: Poland's foreign and security policy priorities. By Kerry Longhurst and Marcin Zaborowski. Endgame in the Balkans: regime change European style. By Elizabeth Pond. Europeanization, varieties of capitalism and economic performance in Central and Eastern Europe. By Lucian Cernat. Democracy in the new Europe. By Christopher Lord and Erika Harris. Russia and Eurasia Putin's Russia and the enlarged Europe. By Roy Allison, Margot Light and Stephen White. Dependent on oil and gas: Russia's integration into the world economy. Edited by Shinichiro Tabata. Middle East and North Africa Killing Mr Lebanon: the assassination of Rafik Hariri and its impact on the Middle East. By Nicholas Blanford. Sub‐Saharan Africa The new multilateralism in South African diplomacy. Edited by Donna Lee, Ian Taylor and Paul D. Williams. Peace without power: Ghana's foreign policy 1957‐66. By Kwesi Armah. Asia and Pacific The king never smiles: a biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej. By Paul M. Handley. China's trapped transition: the limits of developmental autocracy. By Minxin Pei. China: a guide to economic and political developments. By Ian Jeffries. Regionalism and globalization in East Asia: politics, security and economic development. By Mark Beeson. North America The silence of the rational center: why American foreign policy is failing. By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke. Ethical realism: a vision for America's role in the world. By Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman. Is Iraq another Vietnam? By Robert K. Brigham. Überpower: the imperial temptation of America. By Josef Joffe. Latin America and Caribbean Hugo Chávez: oil, politics and the emerging threat to the US. By Nikolas Kozloff. Empire's workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the rise of the new imperialism. By Greg Grandin.     

Book reviews

International Relations theory From international to world society? English School theory and the social structure of globalisation. By Barry Buzan. The West, civil society and the construction of peace. By Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen. International ethics Just intervention. Edited by Anthony F. Lang, Jr. The tragic vision of politics: ethics, interests and orders. By Richard Ned Lebow. International law and organization Great Powers and outlaw states: unequal sovereigns in the international legal order. By Gerry Simpson. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: an exercise in law, politics, and diplomacy. By Rachel Kerr. Foreign relations The choice: global domination or global leadership? By Zbigniew Brzezinski. Worse than Watergate: the secret presidency of George W. Bush. By John W. Dean. The bubble of American supremacy: correcting the misuse of American power. By George Soros. The new mandarins of American power: the Bush administration's plans for the world. By Alex Callinicos. The new imperialism. By David Harvey. Incoherent empire. By Michael Mann. Yankee no! Anti‐Americanism in US‐Latin American relations. By Alan McPherson. Conflict, security and armed forces State building: governance and world order in the twenty‐first century. By Francis Fukuyama. Nation‐building unraveled? Aid, peace and justice in Afghanistan. Edited by Antonio Donini, Norah Niland and Karen Wermester. Grand strategy in the war against terrorism. Edited by Thomas R. Mockaitis and Paul B. Rich. Politics, democracy and social affairs Soft power: the means to success in world politics. By Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Political parties and terrorist groups. By Leonard Weinberg and Ami Pedahzur. International and national political economy, economics and development Free trade for the Americas? The United States' push for the FTAA agreement. Edited by Paulo Vizentini and Marianne Wiesebron. International trade and developing countries: bargaining coalitions in the GATT and WTO. By Amrita Narlikar. Energy and environment Man‐made global warming: unravelling a dogma. By Hans Labohm, Simon Rozendaal and Dick Thoenes. History Colossus: the rise and fall of the American empire. By Niall Ferguson. The Labour Party and the world, volume 1: the evolution of Labour's foreign policy 1900–51. By Rhiannon Vickers. The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War: calling the tune? By Hugh Wilford. Europe Through the paper curtain: insiders and outsiders in the new Europe. Edited by Julie Smith and Charles Jenkins. Yugoslavia: when ideals collide. By Ann Lane. The Kosovo crisis and the evolution of post‐Cold War European security. By Paul Latawski and Martin A. Smith. Yugoslavia unravelled: sovereignty, self‐determination, intervention. Edited by Ragu G. C. Thomas. Russia and the former Soviet republics Inside Putin's Russia. By Andrew Jack. The law and politics of the Caspian Sea in the twenty‐first century: the positions and views of Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, with special reference to Iran. By Bahman Aghai‐Diba. Middle East and North Africa A history of modern Palestine: one land, two peoples. By Ilan Pappe. Saudi Arabia enters the twenty‐first century: the political, foreign policy, economic, and energy dimensions. By Anthony H. Cordesman. Saudi Arabia enters the twenty‐first century: the military and international security dimensions. By Anthony H. Cordesman. Reformers and revolutionaries in modern Iran: new perspectives on the Iranian Left. Edited by Stephanie Cronin. Sub‐Saharan Africa Africa since independence. By Paul Nugent. The shackled continent: Africa's past, present and future. By Robert Guest. Worlds of power: religious thought and political practice in Africa. By Stephen Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar. A continent for the taking: the tragedy and hope of Africa. By Howard W. French. Asia and Pacific China's democratic future: how it will happen and where it will lead. By Bruce Gilley. North America America alone: the neo‐conservatives and the global order. By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke. Latin America and Caribbean The Southern Cone model: the political economy of regional capitalist development in Latin America. By Nicola Phillips. Constructing democratic governance in Latin America. 2nd edn. Edited by Jorge I. Dominguez and Michael Shifter. Opening Mexico: the making of a democracy. By Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon.     

Australian trade policy in an age of globalisation

Arguably, the world trading system has entered a period of greater change and uncertainty in the past two years than at any time since the end of the Cold War. At the same time, Australia faces a range of internal and external challenges to its trade policy, while having lost many of the old 'certainties' guiding its trade agenda. This article identifies four major challenges confronting Australian trade policy now and into the future: the EU agenda to inject self-serving 'governance' mechanisms into the WTO; rises in the demands and influence of developing countries within the WTO; the new trend towards bilateral free trade areas; and increasing opposition to globalisation by groups within society. It assesses the capacity of Australia's trade bureaucracy to manage these issues, warning against expecting too much of the trade policy agenda, particularly in relation to the role it plays within domestic politics in Australia.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this article: International law and organization International organizations as law‐makers. By José E. Alvarez International human rights lexicon. By Susan Marks and Andrew Clapham America's failing empire: US foreign relations since the Cold War. By Warren I. Cohen Conflict, security and armed forces The new wars. By Herfried Münkler The new western way of war. By Martin Shaw Critical security studies and world politics. Edited by Ken Booth Politics, democracy and social affairs Gulliver unbound: America's imperial temptation and the war in Iraq. By Stanley Hoffman and Frédéric Bozo The limits of global governance. By Jim Whitman Une société internationale en mutation: quels acteurs pour une nouvelle gouvernance? Edited by Laurence Boisson de Chazournes and Rostane Mehdi First democracy: the challenge of an ancient idea. By Paul Woodruff The opportunity: America's moment to alter history's course. By Richard N. Haass Setting the people free: the story of democracy. By John Dunn Ethnicity and cultural politics Landscapes of the jihad: militancy, morality, modernity. By Faisal Devji Globalization and the Muslim world: culture, religion, and modernity. Edited by Birgit Schaebler and Leif Stenberg Foreign territory: the internationalization of EU asylum policy. By Oxfam Political economy, economics and development Local players in global games: the strategic constitution of a multinational corporation. By Peer Hull Kristensen and Jonathan Zeitlin Multinationals and global capitalism: from the nineteenth to the twenty‐first century Leviathans: multinational corporations and the new global history. Edited by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr and Bruce Mazlish The new masters of capital: American bond rating agencies and the politics of creditworthiness. By Timothy J. Sinclair Labour in a global world: case studies from the white goods industry in Africa, South America, East Asia and Europe. By Theo Nichols and Surhan Cam Energy and environment The new accountability: environmental responsibility across borders. By Michael R. Mason History Poisoned peace: 1945 the war that never ended. By Gregor Dallas Britain, the Six‐day War and its aftermath. By Frank Brenchley In the midst of events: the Foreign Office diaries and papers of Kenneth Younger, February 1950–October 1951. By Geoffrey Warner The Nixon administration and the death of Allende's Chile: a case of assisted suicide. By Jonathan Haslam Michael of Romania: the king and the country. By Ivor Porter Europe The enlargement of the European Union and NATO: ordering from the menu in Central Europe. By Wade Jacoby International relations and the European Union. Edited by Christopher Hill and Michael Smith The politics of exclusion: institutions and immigration policy in contemporary Germany. By Simon Green Europe and the recognition of new states in Yugoslavia. By Richard Caplan Russia and Eurasia Kazakhstan: power and the elite. By Sally N. Cummings Radical Islam in Central Asia: between pen and rifle. By Vitaly V. Naumkin Sub‐Saharan Africa Darfur: the ambiguous genocide. By Gérard Prunier Darfur: a short history of a long war. By Julie Flint and Alex de Waal Institutions and ethnic politics in Africa. By Daniel Posner Civil militia: Africa's intractable security menace? Edited by David J. Francis The African Union: pan‐Africanism, peacebuilding and development. By Timothy Murithi Politics in francophone Africa. By Victor T. Le Vine Asia and Pacific America's miracle man in Vietnam. By Seth Jacobs North America Addicted to oil: America's relentless drive for energy security. By Ian Rutledge America: sovereign defender or cowboy nation? Edited by Vladimir Shlapentokh, Joshua Woods and Eric Shiraev Devastating society: the neo‐conservative assault on democracy and justice. Edited by Bernd Hamm Latin America and Caribbean The third wave of Latin American democratization: advances and setbacks. Edited by Frances Hagopian and Scott P. Mainwaring Institutional reforms: the case of Colombia. Edited by Alberto Alesina Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian revolution. By Richard Gott     

For all the Wrong Reasons? Re‐evaluating Truman,Domestic Influences,and the Palestine Question

This essay is a re‐evaluation of President Harry Truman's foreign policy in Palestine and whether his decision‐making was influenced by domestic issues, events and attitudes. The article both weighs in on the current debate of whether Truman was susceptible to electoral influences and the Jewish vote, and argues that Truman never knowingly placed American interests in jeopardy by going against the recommendations of his State Department. Rather, the advice of his closest aids convinced him that a pro‐Zionist policy would not detriment American interests in the Middle East. Thus, Truman could then seek to gain political and electoral advantages from a policy that he believed was already in America's best interest. In addition, I will argue that American anti‐Semitism and a revival of nativist attitudes in America resulted in an environment in which America would not accept its share of the displaced persons. As a result, Truman advocated a policy of refugee Zionism with regards to the Palestine Question, which ultimately undermined the British, who were too weak to uphold the Palestine Mandate following the war. Thus, the influence of American domestic issues took many forms and was one integral factor in the eventual outcome of the Palestine Question.     

Sino–American relations: new changes and new challenges

Sino–American relations encompass a highly complex array of cooperative and competitive dimensions. Recently, they have evolved around the question of ‘China's rise’ or (as Chinese analysts would state it) ‘peaceful evolution’. This article surveys both the cooperative and competitive structural elements of this important bilateral relationship. It tracks recent transitions in that relationship, arguing that China's new-found status as a ‘responsible stakeholder’ in American eyes will present a new set of American expectations and new forms of strategic collaboration that will seriously test both sides’ policy creativity and ability to adapt to a rapidly changing global environment.     

China's New Leaders: Perspectives on Geographic Trends and Realities

A senior American specialist on the geography of China examines several aspects of China's society, economy, regional organization, and geopolitical position in light of the change in the country's leadership at the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012. After a brief comparison of the incoming and retiring leadership groups in terms of backgrounds and past policy pronouncements (as well as discussing the challenge posed by corruption), the author proceeds to discuss a series of key social and regional development policies that may be subject to some degree of change under the new leadership, including hukou and the one-child policy. He then focuses on the 12th Five-Year Plan, which provides a broad outline of the new leadership's goals, and particularly its emphasis on balanced regional development (a commitment to further develop the interior of the country as well as to revitalize the old heavy industrial region, the Northeast). The author then turns to China's growing military (and particularly naval) power in connection with its increasing assertion of territorial claims in the South and East China Seas as well as ability to project naval power across the Taiwan Strait and beyond into the Pacific and Indian Ocean theaters.     

‘An Angel Directs the Storm’: The Religious Politics of American Neoconservatism

Abstract

In his inaugural speech, President George W. Bush suggested that the mission of America to spread freedom and democracy in the world is a divinely authored mission. The intention first announced in Bush's inaugural to globalize an American Christian vision of freedom and democracy, and of free market capitalism, reflects the theological underpinnings of the neo-conservativism of the Bush administration. In this article I trace the remarkable continuities between the neo-conservative political theology of Bush and his acolytes and more mainstream Niebuhrian approaches to democracy and the ‘manifest destiny’ of America. I then subject the emergence of an American imperium, and the political theology associated with it, to a critique in dialogue with early Christian critics of Roman Empire, and with the Christian pacifist tradition as recently retrieved by North American theological ethicists John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas.     

The International Monetary Fund and its New Economics

This article focuses on a key element of the IMF's agenda for change: the repackaging of its economics of crisis around inflation targeting. It examines how this new policy regime redefines the political economy of the IMF's policy advice, and contextualizes it by focusing on Eastern Europe, the region worst affected by the global financial crisis which began in 2007. The article compares the conditionalities designed under the new and old policy regimes and argues that the mainstreaming of inflation targeting reproduces the IMF's function within a neoliberal political economy. It shows how, depending on the role of the IMF in the policy process, the models that inform policy are employed differently. During ‘normal’ times, models engender a contractionary bias that favours speculative capital. When acting as ‘lender of last resort’, the IMF retains the traditional emphasis on fiscal contractions, paying only lip service to its new economics of crisis while further ignoring crucial questions of macroeconomic policy coordination or the destabilizing potential of short‐term capital inflows.