Think Tank (July to August 2019)

Allies of Convenience: A Theory of Bargaining in U.S. Foreign Policy

Evan Resnick

Since its founding, the United States has allied with unsavory dictatorships to thwart even more urgent security threats. How well has the United States managed such alliances, and what have been their consequences for its national security? In this book, Evan N. Resnick examines the negotiating tables between the United States and its allies of convenience since World War II and sets forth a novel theory of alliance bargaining. Resnick’s neoclassical realist theory explains why U.S. leaders negotiate less effectively with unfriendly autocratic states than with friendly liberal ones. Since policy makers struggle to mobilize domestic support for controversial alliances, they seek to cast those allies in the most benign possible light. Yet this strategy has the perverse result of weakening leverage in intra-alliance disputes. Resnick tests his theory on America’s Cold War era alliances with China, Pakistan, and Iraq. In all three cases, otherwise hardline presidents bargained anemically on such pivotal issues as China’s sales of ballistic missiles, Pakistan’s development of nuclear weapons, and Iraq’s sponsorship of international terrorism. In contrast, U.S. leaders are more inclined to bargain aggressively with democratic allies who do not provoke domestic opposition, as occurred with the United Kingdom during the Korean War. An innovative work on a crucial and timely international relations topic, Allies of Convenience explains why the United States has mismanaged these “deals with the devil”—with deadly consequences. The book launch of Allies of Convenience: A Theory of Bargaining in U.S. Foreign Policy was on 29 November 2019. Click here for more details.

Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore: Revisiting Citizenship, Rights and Recognition

Terri-Anne Teo

This book is about multiculturalism, broadly defined as the recognition, respect and accommodation of cultural differences. Teo proposes a framework of multicultural denizenship that includes group-specific rights and intercultural dialogue, by problematising three issues: a) the unacknowledged misrecognition of non-citizens within the scholarship of multiculturalism; b) uncritical treatment of citizens and non-citizens as binary categories and; c) problematic parcelling of group-specific rights with citizenship rights. Drawing on the case of Singapore as an illustrative example, where temporary labour migrants are culturally stereotyped, socioeconomically disenfranchised and denied access to rights accorded only to citizens, Teo argues that understandings of multiculturalism need to be expanded and adjusted to include a fluidity of identities, spectrum of rights and shared experiences of marginalisation among citizens and non-citizens. Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore will be of interest to students and scholars of multiculturalism, critical citizenship studies, migration studies, political theory and postcolonial studies.

Southeast Asia after the Cold War: A Contemporary History

Ang Cheng Guan

International relations in Southeast Asia after 1990 can be understood in terms of a United States dominated security order, and the regional structure created by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But as the Cold War recedes further into the past, that order is increasingly under siege, with a new global strategic rebalancing underway. The region is forced to contemplate new risks and the emergence of new rivalries and conflicts. With Southeast Asia After the Cold War, Ang Cheng Guan offers a complete, analytically informed contemporary history that covers the whole region, tracing developments since 1990 and highlighting change, continuity, and the larger context in which decisions have been made. Crucial as a tool for making sense of the dynamics of the region, this account of Southeast Asia’s international relations will also be of immediate relevance to those in the United States and elsewhere who engage with the region, with its young, dynamic population, and its strategic position at between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. A version of this book has been translated into Chinese as 東南亞的當代新秩序: 後冷戰時代的東南亞國際關係史 (Taipei: 八旗文化, 2023).

Singapore Chronicles: PAP

Shashi Jayakumar, Albert Lau

This book discusses the inception, evolution and longevity of the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore since 1959. It describes seminal events in the party’s history and its role in Singapore’s political life, including the split with the communists within the party and the struggle for Merger with Malaysia. The book analyses how the economics of Singapore’s survival as an independent nation helped create the politics of dominance associated with the PAP. The book pays close attention to the party’s efforts at renewal and reorganisation even as it was returned to power in general elections. It shows how the PAP seeks to legitimise its authority to govern byhandling contentious issues such as ministerial pay and tackling the challenge from the opposition and critical voices in online media.