“天赋使命”与美国外交

“天赋使命”神话根深蒂固于美国白人文化中,深深地影响着美国人对外部世界的看法与态度。当美利坚合众国作为一个主权实体开始发展与其它国家的外交关系时,这种观念对政府决策者的思想产生了深刻的影响,并在美国对外政策中体现出来,本文从“天赋使命”论对美国各时期外交政策的影响和所受制约因素等方面来探讨其与美国外交之间的特殊关系。     

美国“新孤立主义”探源

近年来,随着国际局势,特别是苏联政局变化,美国国内主张大大减少卷入国际事务、优先处理国内问题的“新孤立主义”思潮泛起。代表人物多是共和党保守派,最著名的是曾任尼克松和里根总统的撰稿人、专栏作家帕特里克·布坎南。 布坎南主张,美国应将切身利益作为政策目标,少干预些别国事务。他认为,自第二次世界大战以来,美国一直独自承担保卫西方、反对共产主义的一切风险和大部分经济负担,而美国以前的敌人德国和日本却一直在飞速前进。他称美国     

美国的话语外交技巧——试析孤立主义与全球主义

美国,当今世界唯一的全球性超级大国,一言一行都会对国际社会产生重要影响。而美国建国历史至今仅有短短的两百余年,从小到大,从弱到强,美国的综合国力始终沿着这一轨迹前进。作为体现美国国家实力的重要表现之一———外交政策,从孤立主义到全球主义,表面上似乎是不同历史时期美国特色的表现,但实际上,这都是在当时特定的历史条件下美国外交话语的产物,并无不渗透出实用主义和国家利益的目的性。     

美国孤立主义战略及其战略下的“有所作为”

孤立主义战略是美国外交政策中执行时间最长的大战略.除了短暂的几次例外,从1789年至珍珠港事件、美国参加第二次世界大战这段时间内一直主导着美国的外交政策.孤立主义战略下的美国不是“闭关锁国”,只是为了维护自己的生存和发展,不愿轻易卷入欧洲强国的纷争.在孤立主义战略的主导下,美国“韬光养晦,有所作为”,增加国家实力,扩张“势力范围”,朝着世界强国迈进.     

略谈美国的“保守”外交

里根政府执政三年,下届总统竞选即将正式开场。它的外交政绩是得分多还是失策多,又到算算帐的时候了。 里根是以“保守主义”旗号入主白宫的,上台以后也企图以此“治国平天下”。但是,从过去的一年来看,美国在世界上遇到的事情,不顺心的居多,虽然这不等于说事事都是由于美国的失策或过错。 所谓美国的“保守主义”的对外政策,主要的表现有两点:一是同苏联抗衡,软硬兼施,以硬为主。二是以“意识形态”划线。或文或武,推销美     

美国的“网络外交”与我国意识形态安全

2008年底,美国《外交政策》刊登了两位美国教授的文章,宣称世界进入了一个“意识形态新时代”,其中认为“意识形态现在是国家实力最重要的,然而又是最不确定和变化最陕的组成部分”,尤其是在信息传播技术快速发展的时代,“意识形态的变化速度要快得多,因为进人的门槛更低。     

生意经与外交与美国

“生意经”者做买卖的方法或门路也。《史记·货殖列传》上就记有不少这样的经商之道,诸如“贵上极则反贱,贱下极则反贵”,“贵出如粪土,贱取如珠玉”,等等。“生意经”就其原意而言,可以说是一个“中性”词,原本无褒贬。但是中国社会长期以来商品经济不发达,直到几年前“商品经济”这几个字还被扣上“姓资(产阶级)”的大帽子,或者起码被认为是与中国现存社会无缘的。正是由于这种     

美国“重返亚洲”对中国外交的消极影响

2009年,在中国不断崛起而美国相对衰微的背景之下,美国高调“重返亚洲”.基于现实层面分析,美国“重返亚洲”对中国外交产生严重的消极影响:外部战略空间被压缩、经济命脉被威胁、外交资源被占用.     

美国厘定“冷战后”外交战略的大辩论

苏联解体已使战后形成的两极冷战对峙格局彻底瓦解。世界各国的国际问题专家、政治家和外交官们尽力研究和理解这种变化的意义与影响,重新认识新环境下的国家利益,探索可能和应该作出的种种战略的和策略的选择,以便调整对外战略,重新确定自己在国际关系体系中的位置。这一过程将会对世界形势的发展变化产生重大影响。本刊请有关专家分别介绍美、日、德、俄四国围绕这一调整进行的研究及各种看法和争论,以便读者了解国际关系的变动及其发展趋势。     

美国人权外交的虚伪性和两重性

在人类即将进入 2 1世纪的时候 ,以美国为首的北约国家无视有关国际法公约 ,恣意践踏南联盟人民人权的行径 ,充分暴露了美国人权外交的虚伪性和两重性 ,也使人们进一步看清了美国“世界人权警察”的险恶用心。美国人权的外交政策 ,究其实质不过是其推进世界霸权的一块恍子 ,是美国及其盟友的人权 ,是对其他国家的“强权”、“霸权”。剖析美国人权外交的特点 ,主要体现在以下三个方面 :一、双重的人权标准“人权高于主权”、“人权无国界” ,这些观点是美国双重人权标准的生动写照。美国历来标榜自己是“人权的卫道士” ,但在国际社会却一贯…     

Issues and Institutions: "Winnowing" in the U.S. Congress

“Winnowing” is the pre‐floor process by which Congress determines the small percentage of bills that will receive committee attention. The vast majority of proposals languish in this vital agenda‐setting stage, yet our understanding of winnowing is nascent. Why do some bills move forward while most fail? I examine that question here by developing and testing a theoretical framework of winnowing grounded in bounded rationality, which includes institutional and sponsor cues and also incorporates the unique issue milieu. A heteroskedastic probit model is utilized to analyze the winnowing fate of all bills introduced across five issue areas in the House and Senate from 1991 to 1998. The findings counter much received wisdom and suggest that the process is indeed cue based. The majority party helps structure this critical process in both chambers, though party effects appear stronger in the House. Contrary to recent work on the rise of Senate individualism, the seniority of the sponsor has significant effects in both the Senate and House, but again exhibits a stronger effect in the House. Surprisingly, presidential proposals are no more likely to survive than typical bills. The findings further suggest that the entrepreneurial efforts of bill sponsors breathe life into this process.     

The impact of the U.S. war on terrorism upon U.S.-China relations

Using a framework of geopolitical analysis. Oliver Lee argues that the fundamental geopolitical relationships between the United States and China, namely the relationship between the world’s strongest naval and air power and the world’s strongest land power, would not be upset even after the American military presence in central Asia since September 11, 2001. The relationship would remain essentially unaltered because — American initiation of the use of nuclear weapons against China being ruled out for fear of Chinese retaliation — China would be able to withstand any U.S. military offensive conducted with conventional land, sea, and air forces, regardless of whether the U.S. possesses permanent air bases in Central Asia or not, and regardless of how many troops it may station on them. His teaching and research interests include domestic and foreign policies of China and power in America and U.S. foreign policy.     

U.S.-China Space Cooperation: Balancing Act between the U.S. Congress and President

There are a growing number of U.S. space scientists and managers calling for reinitiating cooperation with China in space. It is well-known that investigations of the U.S. Congress into various allegations involving China have resulted in a series of laws curtailing space cooperation between these two countries. By surveying the concurrent political developments within the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, this article attempts to reveal the domestic compulsions that propelled changes in the U.S. space policy towards China. The fundamental impetus is the power struggle and differences between the U.S. president and Congress in their perception of U.S. economic interests and national security in the context of space technology that strained these relations. Recent U.S. presidents who inherited this situation added to the discourse based on their own perceptions about outer space and China. These perceptions either found congruence with the policy of the U.S. Congress or led to finding ways to circumvent its legal restrictions. Based on these developments, it is concluded that the view of the U.S. president has alternated between necessary, desirable, and objectionable on the issue of U.S.-China space cooperation, and the U.S. Congress has thus shifted from supporting to restricting and then legally banning cooperation.     

U.S. Intransigence and the Climate Change Reality

This essay is a response to the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and a rejoinder to Donald Trump’s allegations against India and China. It argues that U.S. intransigence poses a serious threat to the multilateral efforts to redress the climate change crisis.     

Lobbying and the 2006 U.S. midterm elections

• Lobbyists are inextricably intertwined with the electoral process in the United States, but rarely have they ever featured so prominently in an election year as in 2006. The midterm elections came at the end of a year in which the political news was often dominated by stories of lobbying scandal, most notably that involving Jack Abramoff. Lobbying was an important issue in many peoples' voting decisions, and moreover one of the immediate outcomes of the election was a raft of lobbying reform measures both in Congress and in the individual states. As one commentator put it: ‘For lobbyists, 2006 rolled by like a late‐night B movie where the earthquake wipes out the villagers who refused to heed the warning signs’ (Divis, 2006 ). This article reviews some of the most substantial lobbying scandals which emerged during 2006, considers how lobbying and lobbyists fared during the election campaigns, and analyses the various reforms which have recently been considered and implemented, before briefly examining how lobbyists will impact upon the 2008 election races.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.