Diplomatic Rivalry Research Articles

The Struggle for Recognition: Diplomatic Competition Between China and Taiwan in Oceania

The PRC and Taiwan are competing to gain diplomatic recognition from Pacific Islands states, a number of which recognise Taiwan and serve as a barrier to its international isolation. Since much of Oceania is in Australia’s sphere of influence, this struggle has often involved Canberra. This paper focuses on the intensifying conflict–with conclusions about the local political economic situations of the countries in Oceania that are most likely to switch recognition, the dilemmas that the issue poses for Australia and its alliance with the US, and the game theory of these auctions of diplomatic recognition. The rental of recognition is analysed as a “sovereignty business” in which some Pacific Islands states engage—similar to the offshore financial centres which are prevalent in the region.

China's scramble for Africa

Beijing’s current approach to Africa focuses primarily on economic concerns (particularly resource security). Diplomatic competition with Taiwan remains another key motivator of Chinese activism. Finally, the growing importance in China’s foreign policy of multilateralism, and the associated need to cultivate allies and constituencies of support within multilateral institutions, has been significant in guiding and enforcing relations between China and African countries.

Trouble on the Frontier: Dutch-Brooke Relations and Iban Rebellion in the West Borneo Borderlands (1841-86)

As European influence expanded in insular Southeast Asia throughout the early modern era, colonial interests shifted from maintaining favorable trade zones along the coasts and rivers to an increasing control of territory and its human populations. The island of Borneo entered the colonial ambit relatively late in this process,Graham Irwin, Nineteenth-Century Borneo: A Study in Diplomatic Rivalry (s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955). but its eventual division between British and Dutch spheres of influence and control has had profound consequences for the peoples that fell under either. There and elsewhere, territorial boundaries sliced across well-established networks of communication, trade, common traditions, and strong ties of kinship. These boundaries came to impose different symbols of formal status on people from the same ethnic groups. From the colonial perspective, boundaries were designed to function negatively, to restrict what was deemed illegal such as smuggling and migration, and positively, to promote legitimate activities like taxation and road construction. The usual colonial attitude was that borders should be precisely defined, clearly demarcated, jealously guarded, and exclusive. A. I. Asiwaju, ‘The Conceptual Framework’, in A. I. Asiwaju (ed.), Partitioned Africans: Ethnic Relations Across Africa's International Boundaries, 1884-1984 (London: C. Hurst and Co., 1985), pp. 1-18 at pp. 2-3; A. I. Asiwaju, Borderlands Research: A Comparative Perspective. Border Perspectives Paper No. 6 (El Paso: University of Texas, Center for Inter-American and Border Studies, 1983), pp. 2-3; S. Whittemore Boggs, International Boundaries: A Study of Boundary Functions and Problems (New York: Columbia University Press, 1940), pp. 10-11. Yet the people so partitioned routinely defied the border divisions, causing no small amount of worry to the colonial states.

COMPLEMENTARY MEASURES TO FOREIGN AID: TAIWAN AND THE PRC UNDER DIPLOMATIC RIVALRY

The competition on foreign aid, as a means for securing foreign policy and other benefits by the donor, can lead to diplomatic rivalry. This article utilizes a game theoretic model to analyze the existing rivalry for foreign aid and international status between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Similar to the role of political contributions in the public choice theory, foreign aid is taken a means of international lobbying, to realize the donor's objective. Research results, based on the policy effect consideration, indicates that the equilibrium aid policy, which is endogenously determined, renders an inability on the part of the donors, which affects the recipient's optimal foreign policy. How does a donor obtain favorable outcomes when such rivalry exists? Strengthening diplomatic endeavors to realize the access effect has been proved an effective method. Analytical results have shown that this method not only complements aid rivalry but also increases the welfare of the donor.

The Donor Versus The Recipient Approach: A Theoretical Exploration of Aid Distribution Patterns in Taipei and Beijing

Taipei and Beijing have utilized foreign economic assistance as an instrument of foreign policy since the 1950s. Foreign aid has been useful to both in their diplomatic competition. Traditionally, the donor’s diplomatic motivation in giving aid reflects its calculated selection of specific recipients and thus is conducive to the formation of aid distribution patterns geographically. However, the fact that geographical aid distribution and concentration patterns are also partially determined by the recipients according to their own needs must be ignored. Indeed, the vastly different experiences of economic development in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) help to explain the disparities in their foreign aid programs. The distinctiveness of aid programs between Taipei and Beijing further indicates diverse aid distribution and concentration patterns geographically.

China and the May 1998 riots of Indonesia: exploring the issues

This paper explores the causes for China's change of policy from silence to making public demands that Indonesia do more to protect its ethnic Chinese population in the wake of the riots in Jakarta and other parts of Indonesia in May 1998. First, China saw it in its own interest to minimize potential damages to its state-to-state ties with Indonesia, allowing as little room as possible for Taiwan to exploit in the long-lasting China-Taiwan diplomatic rivalry. Second, Indonesia, in spite of its domestic problems, remains a country of significance to China in regional issues like the South China Sea disputes. Third, China needed to retain its reputation as a responsible actor in the process of regional economic crisis. Finally, the loyalty of the Indonesian Chinese to China continues to be a question and China could further weaken that loyalty if it contributed to the worsening of their predicament. In short, China may have wished to maximize its possible gains and minimize the potential risks through its action over the May riots.

Russian America: Studies in the English Language

Yet Russian contributions to that understanding were substantial, adding materially to the steady accumulation of knowledge in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which made the American West first an object of diplomatic and commercial rivalry, and then a destination for settlement. The Russians not only mapped both the western and eastern sides of the Pacific, but also accomplished the first navigation

Diplomatic Rivalry in the South Pacific: The PRC and Taiwan

Diplomatic Rivalry in the South Pacific: The PRC and Taiwan

Diplomatic Rivalry in the South Pacific: The PRC and Taiwan

Diplomatic Rivalry in the South Pacific: The PRC and Taiwan

The Contest for Siam, 1889–1902: A Study in Diplomatic Rivalry. By Chandran Jeshurun. University of Malaya Press, 1977. Pp. xxiii, 383, Foreword by Professor C.D. Cowan, Preface, Acknowledgement, Abbreviations, Appendixes, Bibliography, Index. M$40.00.

The Contest for Siam, 1889–1902: A Study in Diplomatic Rivalry. By Chandran Jeshurun. University of Malaya Press, 1977. Pp. xxiii, 383, Foreword by Professor C.D. Cowan, Preface, Acknowledgement, Abbreviations, Appendixes, Bibliography, Index. M$40.00. - Volume 9 Issue 1

Nineteenth-Century Borneo, a Study in Diplomatic Rivalry.

Nineteenth-Century Borneo, a Study in Diplomatic Rivalry.