US Relations Research Articles

Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Impact on Pak-US Relations

Conflict in Afghanistan, either Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or war on terror in post 9/11 period, has deep impact on Pak- US relations. In both the cases Pakistan got the status of the most important state strategically. It played important role as a front-line state to fight against the Soviet Union during Soviet attack of Afghanistan. As a result, America extended economic and military support to Pakistan. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, American Foreign policy towards Pakistan was changed; it stopped all kind of economic and military support to Pakistan and imposed sanctions on it. Again, in post 9/11 attacks on American soil, America decided to attack Afghanistan and it needed Pakistan’s logistic support. Pakistan extended the required support and again became an important American ally in operation in Afghanistan. Thus, we may say, that conflict in Afghanistan has deep impact on Pak- US relations.

Limits of India–US Relations: Balancing Through Strategic Autonomy and Multi-alignment

The India–US relationship has often been described as a defining partnership. But the nature of the friendship in actuality is yet to assume depth. Despite convergences at multiple levels, it falls short of a true strategic partnership or deep friendship. The India–US relationship is neither a trusted nor an assured economic or security partnership. It is often tested by the vagaries of real-time issues, especially involving other great powers. That is why, despite signing the civilian nuclear deal, foundational agreements, being members of the QUAD and Indo-Pacific Economic Forum, and with the common objective of containing the rise of China, they are unable to work closely together on myriad bilateral, international and regional issues. There are differences over matters of primary interests and the type of partnership that each wants to establish. The United States was insensitive to Indian concerns in its abrupt drawdown from Afghanistan in 2021, sub-continental security threats emanating from the China–Pakistan axis and its continued military support to Pakistan. India’s neutral stand (read in the United States as being pro-Russian) in the Ukraine crisis marked by its abstention from voting against Russia in the UN and purchase of Russian oil despite strong objections from the US-led Western camp are cases in point. We argue that India’s US policy is a case of limited balancing dictated by compulsions and lacks depth. For rising India, a continued desire for strategic autonomy and multi-alignment—the post-non-alignment foreign policy principles—guides its foreign policy orientation. For Washington, a deeper relationship would imply India abandoning its visions of strategic autonomy and joining more formally in Washington’s orbit. These core national objectives of the two countries limit the level of partnership they can forge.

“The Throttling of the Free Press in Cuba”: Exploring Transnational Journalism and Sigma Delta Chi’s Advocacy for Press Freedom in Cuba, 1959–1962

ABSTRACT Members of Sigma Delta Chi (SDX), the largest journalism professional organization based in the United States, engaged in advocacy for transnational freedom of information and press freedom in Cuba between 1959 and 1962, between the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Analysis of archival sources—including SDX member records, correspondence, and declassified government reports—and content in the official SDX magazine, reveals three themes: justifying a Latin America section with a primary focus on Cuba, the throttling of the free flow of information in and from Cuba, and documenting transnational flows of propaganda from Cuba and news from United States-based Cuban exiles to Cuba. Communist threats to reporters and democratic news organizations increased, and news management from the Cuban government and US government influenced information flows during this period. These findings add to the histories on free press advocacy abroad, cross-border journalism, and international press-politics in the context of US and Cuba relations.

Российско-американские отношения конца XX – первой четверти XXI века: тенденции и перспективы

The article studies the relations between Russia and the USA in the late 20th – first decades of the 21st centuries as a central problem of modern international relations. The analysis is performed in the historicalpolitical retrospect, from the 1990s to the present day. When it comes to the 1990s, viewed as a time of friendship and partnership, the reasons for the rapprochement between the two countries are described, as well as the events of the late 1990s – eastward NATO expansion and the NATO bombing of Belgrade – which were the turning point for the decline in Russia–US relations. Talking about the 2000s – 2010s, the author indicates the contradictions in the development of the bilateral relations, namely, a trend towards both improvement (establishment of the NATO–Russia Council following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the “reset” policy in the late 2000s) and deterioration (as a result of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Russo-Georgian conflict in August 2008, Syrian civil war, Ukrainian political crisis and the accession of Crimea to Russia in 2014). According to the author, Russian-American relations over the past decade (2014–2024) could be described as hostile, which eliminates the possibility for their normalization through direct contacts between the two parties. The downward trend in Russia– US relations, which emerged in the late 1990s and continued to grow during the 2000s – 2020s, can be explained by the two countries’ irreconcilable positions on the system of international relations. The United States seek to create a unipolar – Americentric – world, while Russia insists on multipolarity. According to the author, the only way to improve relations between Russia and the USA is to stabilize the system of international relations. This problem is discussed in the final part of the article.

Colombia – US relations in an era of great power competition

AbstractLatin America and the Caribbean is becoming the next region of strategic importance in an era of great power competition, and no other country is more pivotal to the balance of power there than Colombia. Chinese influence in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased tremendously in the last decade through the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative, trade volumes, and diplomatic pressures on Latin American and Caribbean countries, both for them to recognize Beijing's government and to remain quiet in international fora about Beijing's human rights violations. Field work conducted in Colombia complemented by consultation of qualitative and quantitative secondary sources revealed that Colombia has been an exception, receiving less Chinese attention and investment compared to other countries in the region. Colombia's special relationship with the United States, its own reluctance to turn towards China, and China's decision to prioritize other nations in the region emerge as reasons for why Colombia is an exceptional case. And yet, looking ahead, this reality is likely to change. The United States must act deliberately and decisively now to strengthen its special relationship with Colombia and thus maintain its strategic standing in Latin America for the coming decades.

The logic of China–US rivalry

Behind the struggle and game between China and the United States are four sets of overlapping and mutually causal logics, namely the growth and decline of the two countries’ strength, ideological differences, changes in the international environment, and domestic political influence. Sino–US relations will not be able to return to the depth of exchanges and level of cooperation at the beginning of the twenty-first century for a long time. However, the long-term interests and strategic considerations of the two countries determine that the two countries must avoid war with each other and maintain a certain degree of economic cooperation and social exchanges. The biggest uncertainty in Sino–US relations in 2024 is the chaos that may be caused by domestic political struggles in the United States. However, the official and non-governmental contacts between China and the United States since 2023 have made the upper limit of the development of bilateral relations and the bottom line of conflict clearer. Sino–US relations are difficult to improve, but they are expected to be basically stable.

War on Terrorism in Pakistan: Security Challenges and Safety Prioritization

This paper highlights the dynamics of war on terror among the Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States of America. It provides the strategic importance such as political, economic and militarily interests in the region. This study also shows the policies and strategies adopted by the US and Pakistan to save their interests in the American led war on terror. War against terror or war on terror, is an internationally military campaign that was launched by the Bush administration. The fatalistic incident known as 9/11 happened in 2001 in which approximately 2700 people were killed and numberless of injured fettered the wall of international politics. After this incident the government of America and world community were very much aggressive to take revenge from Al-Qaida network based in the Afghanistan. This research tries to find out the answer of the research questions such as to analyze the Pak US relations since inception. American foreign policies towards Pakistan after 9/11. To analyze the policies made by Pakistan to combat terrorism domestically and strengthen political as well as military institutions. Furthermore to analyze the policies of neighboring states such as India and Afghanistan towards the Pakistan. To find out the answers of these research questions research has employed qualitative research methodology with interpretative approach with securitization theory. For data analysis descriptive and exploratory approaches has been used in this research. The core findings of the research that war on terror was combination of Mush and Bush to secure their interests in the region. Bush ruined the Al-Qaida network and Mush got an economic assistance. US showed the supremacy to the world by led a war on terror. Pak US relations make its flow towards an alliance against terrorist’s network in Afghanistan. War on Terror was a complex war and essence a question of territorial sovereignty. This war on terror put the whole region at risk.

Transatlantic relations between the US and the EU in the second and third decades of the 21st century - main challenges


 Historically, the development of new technologies has led to higher increase in productivity in Europe and the US compared to the rest of the world. This resulted in economic asymmetry in the global economy, which ultimately led to the geopolitical domination of Europe and the USA over Africa and Asia (Findlay, O'Rourke, 2007, p. 364). With the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has taken a step towards playing a significant role in trade, environment and social issues (Van Langenhove & Marchesi, 2009; Rudloff & Laurer, 2017). The aim of this work is to present the main challenges and changes taking place in transatlantic relations between the EU and the USA in the second and third decades of the 21st century. To achieve this goal, the descriptive method was applied.
 The reforms carried out by the EU allowed it to act in the spectrum of international affairs. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine (in 2014 and 2022) showed that the EU is increasingly resorting to sanctions and conditionality instruments to promote its interests. In addition, the EU aims to create a common army. Despite the fact that these changes contribute to the increase of the EU's competitiveness in the world, US relations between the EU are extremely durable, and the transatlantic community is repairing mutual relations relatively quickly. Meanwhile, the EU's relations with China, the largest trading partner in 2021 (Eurostat, 2022), are confrontational.
 Despite improvement in transatlantic relations, the earlier lack of communication led to a lack of confidence in the US on the part of Europeans. Relations between the US and the EU in the third decade of the 21st century remain tense – it is worth mentioning the AUKUS defense pact (agreement between Australia, Great Britain and the United States) on the exchange of defense technologies in this respect (Borges de Castro and Ricardo, 2021; Morcos 2021 ). It resulted in deterioration of relations between Paris and the US to such an extent that they were close to breaking. At the same time, at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, transatlantic relations sought stabilization. President Biden's administration has reaffirmed its commitment to alliances with European countries. In addition, the US returned to the Paris Agreement (United States Department of State, 2021) and rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO) (Keaten, 2021).

Henry Kissinger and US policy in the South of Africa

The article deals with the American policy towards the southern Africa in the era of Henry Kissinger. The main driving force behind that enterprise in this direction was the National Security Advisor and US Secretary of State during the Nixon-Ford administration. The author examines how US relations to the southern portion of this continent, Angola in particular, unfolds from virtually non-existent to almost full-scale intervention in 1970s - and makes findings of the Kissinger’s dealings with the issue.

A Fragile Agenda for Peace: Change and Continuity in the Biden Administration’s Africa Policy

As the Biden administration’s first term nears its conclusion, this essay takes stock of the emerging consequences of its approach to US foreign relations with Africa. It does so by assessing change and continuity in US relations with the African states that have been selected by the Biden administration for Global Fragility Act partnerships: Libya, Mozambique, and, as a region, the coastal West African states of Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire. Passed in late 2019, the Global Fragility Act was hailed as a policy innovation meant to bring better coordination and long-term planning to US attempts to prevent conflicts and engender stability in regions of concern for Washington. This essay argues that these aims will be undermined by the dearth of new proposals advanced by the Global Fragility Act as well as the Biden administration’s overarching commitment to counterterrorism and geostrategic competition in Africa.

Arming Fortress Europe? Spaces and Instruments of Economic Patriotism in EU Armament Policy

How does the EU adapt its policies in response to current global changes? Extant scholarship has shed light on the EU’s geopolitical turn by analysing it as either a shift away from neoliberalism or a reshuffling of EU–US relations. This article makes the case for studying how these two dynamics interact. To do so, I draw on the economic patriotism framework, which focuses on the links between types and spaces of economic interventionism. Economic patriotism instruments can take various forms depending on their type (liberal/protectionist instruments) and space of reference (national/EU/transatlantic/international). From this perspective, the EU has responded to global changes by shifting from liberal to protectionist instruments of economic patriotism. However, the design of these policy instruments reflects compromises between the preferences of policymakers who adopt liberal/protectionist and Europeanist/Atlanticist positions. As policy instruments can create room for compromise because they allow various positions to converge, EU protectionist economic instruments cater to Atlanticist and liberal preferences too. This article illustrates this argument by means of EU armament policy. Using official documents and interviews, I analyse changes in EU economic patriotism by looking at the two major policy instruments: the 2009 Defence Procurement Directive and the 2021 European Defence Fund. Whereas the 2009 Directive reflected liberal economic patriotism anchored in the transatlantic space, the European Defence Fund illustrates tensions between types and spaces of economic interventionism in the EU’s geopolitical turn: Some clauses protect the EU from foreign interference, but its political-economic space of reference remains strongly transatlantic.

Linguistic Means of Constructing ‘Enemy Number One’ in the US Cold War Cinema

The study examines how the US Cold War cinema employed linguistic means to construct images of the USSR and American communists. The research relevance is determined by: the need to study the techniques of creating the enemy image as one of the crucial issues in international relations; and the importance of the topic amidst the aggravation of Russia- US relations. The study aims at analysing the usage of linguistic means in such practices of constructing/deconstructing the images of ‘enemy number one’ as dehumanisation of the enemy, its normalisation, domestication, and rehumanisation. The research novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, the language as a resource for constructing enemy images in the Cold War films is analysed. The material for the study makes American films of the 1940s-1960s, in which contaminated speech for depicting Soviet characters is extensively used. Particular attention is paid to the means of creating speech portraits of Soviet characters. The research methods used are descriptive, linguistic, and sociolinguistic methods, and discourse analysis. The authors conclude that linguistic means (primarily linguistic competences and accent) were instrumental for creating enemy images in the cinematic Cold War. Linguistic otherness served as a means of emphasising second-rate culture, which in turn was intended to mark political foreignness. Linguistic means helped fulfil functions of the enemy image: showing its otherness; depriving it of the linguistic abilities as an essential attribute of humanity, helping dehumanise it; emphasizing its civilisational inferiority; and making the enemy comical. Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that the cinematic image of ‘enemy number one’ contributed to the hierarchisation of languages; everything Russian was associated with communism and therefore perceived as inferior and hostile.

Reckoning with ‘new’ Turkey: Modes of US reaction to unwanted policy shifts in the Middle East

AbstractThis article discusses the changing relations between the United States and Turkey in light of Turkey's contemporary foreign policy that often challenges American interests. More specifically, it adopts a comparative approach to examine the variables that determine the course of US reaction when unwanted policy shifts take place in the Middle East. To this end, apart from Turkey, the article examines two more cases: US relations with Egypt in the 1950s, and with Iran right before, during and after the 1979 revolution. The comparative analysis reveals that the case of contemporary Turkey has been more similar to the historical case of Egypt, which explains why Washington has been adopting (and is more likely to continue doing so) a “wait‐and‐see” approach vis‐à‐vis Ankara. However, domestic changes in Turkey, though not as abrupt and radical as in Iran, remain significant and may have a deeper impact on US–Turkish relations in the future.

Reciprocity and asymmetry in digital diplomacy: Geopolitics of national identity in South Korea–Japan and South Korea–US relations

AbstractAn emerging line of research has drawn attention to the significance of national identity in shaping digital diplomatic practices. In this study, we look at the reciprocal construction of national identity on Twitter by corresponding foreign missions. Specifically, we examine one year of Twitter posts from the South Korean missions in Japan and the United States as well as the reciprocal missions of Japan and the United States in South Korea. Our study indicates that tweets from the Korea–US dyad reproduce the two nations as allies, even as the United States is constructed as the “big brother” to Korea's “little brother,” while the Korea–Japan dyad enacts and reinforces an adversarial relationship. Tweets from all four embassies reflect deep‐rooted national aspirations: Japan's hope to be accepted as morally superior to Korea, the US interest in maintaining its position as a global leader, and Korea's desire for international ascendance through economic and cultural export. We find that reciprocal identity construction is most evident in the text of the tweets but not so much in the use of Twitter's visual and interactional features. Going beyond reciprocity, our analysis sheds light on to how tweeting practices reproduce asymmetries of power in the international order.

Jazz as Soft Power in Turkey–US Relations During the Early Cold War Period

ABSTRACT The 1950s was an era when Turkish-US relations were developing in various arenas. In addition to hard power instruments, such as NATO membership, the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid, elements of soft power were also being used to promote the relationship between the two states. One element of this latter power was jazz which became tool of US public diplomacy used to export its cultural values. This paper explores how jazz was used as such in Turkey–US relations in the 1950s. The original aspect of this article lies in its dealing with the influence of jazz music, a relatively little mentioned soft power element in Turkey–US relations of this period. The main finding of the article may be conceptualized as follows: Turkey’s relationship with the US was based not only on economic and military interests, but also cultural ties between the two which were also crucial to strengthening their bilateral relations. In this context, musicians were key agents of cultural diplomacy with their music and songs legitimizing a new and different 20th century.

Demystifying Indo-US Natural and Strategic Partnership

India–US relations have witnessed diverse trends ranging from estrangement to engagement followed by strategic partnership. They have signed various agreements, such as DPA, CND, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA, to institutionalize their strategic partnership. However, real-time challenges have continuously shaped the trajectory of strategic alignment as their national interests occasionally converged and often diverged. Their notions of world order sharply contrast. New Delhi stands for a multi-polar world order, whereas Washington advocates uni-polar world order. The US–Pakistan alliance partnership has further proved an impediment to the Indo–US strategic partnership. Hence, much claimed natural partnership has not been able to make much headway as their national interests diverge on core issues such as trade, immigration, joint and co-production, and world order. The mainstream literature advocates that these are the teething problems of evolving strategic partnerships, but the in-depth analysis indicates that issues confronting their relationship are structural and deep-rooted. Realism, neorealism and social constructivism prove appropriate tools to grasp the dynamic of Indo–US natural and strategic partnerships by locating them in the global, Asian and regional power structure.

Changing Dynamics of Bilateral Relations between US and Pakistan: Sino-Russia Factor

This paper aimed at an exhaustive analysis of changing dynamics in bilateral relations between the US and Pakistan. Solid projections about the future shape of US-Pakistan relationship are integral part of this study. Qualitative method of research with descriptive and predictive approaches has been employed to analyze relevant material. Economic rise of China in recent times has expanded its clout. Russia appears to have recovered some of its lost space. These shifts have indelible imprints on the US relations with its allies especially Pakistan. Bilateral ties between Pakistan and America have always been transactional and uncertain. The post-evacuation scenario in Afghanistan has also raised doubts on the future of these relations. Whereas, Pakistan and China are neighbors who have close economic and security cooperation. Pakistan and Russia are also in process of healing old sores due to economic and geo-political needs. The US has shifted its weight in favor of India for strategic partnership in the region in its bid for containment of China. The changed scenario is beset with certain new avenues of benefits and threats at the same time

US Factor in Sino-Indian Relations: An Analysis

India and China are neighboring countries in the South Asia region mutually stand independent countries equally ensure two-pronged relations. Subsequently the tic, they had diplomatic relations till now but in South Asia, they have a rivalry, and the US is also part of this rivalry. They have multiple agreements for trade and also deter about economic conflict in the South Asia region. The US relations with Beijing and Delhi are very complicated because Washington creates zero-sum outcomes in strategic relations and bilateral relations between them. The objective of this study is to focus on Sino-India relations after 9/11 and analysis the US factor. This study follows the secondary base data that is the assumption of triangle relations in South Asia region.

Imperial Educación: Race and Republican Motherhood in the Nineteenth-Century Americas by Thomas Genova

Reviewed by: Imperial Educación: Race and Republican Motherhood in the Nineteenth-Century Americas by Thomas Genova Felipe Martínez-Pinzón Keywords International Education, Nation Formation, Republicanism, Motherhood, Gender, Race, Thomas Genova, Felipe Martínez-Pinzón genova, thomas. Imperial Educación: Race and Republican Motherhood in the Nineteenth-Century Americas. U of Virginia P, 2021, 342 pp. Imperial Educación: Race and Republican Motherhood in the Nineteenth-Century Americas offers a refreshing approach to Latin American literary and cultural studies, specifically 19th-century studies, through rigorous transnational [End Page 323] archival work and a literary review of three national literatures placed in dialogue, friction and mutual influence: the United States, Cuba and Argentina. As part of a recent trend in hemispheric studies of our 19th-century literatures, alongside important names and titles in Hemispheric Studies such as Ronald Brigg's The Moral Electricity of Print: Transatlantic Education in Lima Women's Circuit, 1876–1910 (2017) and Rodrigo Lazo's Writing Cuba: Filibustering and Cuban Exiles in the United States (2005), Thomas Genova offers a nuanced analysis of a critical trope—or at least one that reveals itself as critical thanks to his book—to the construction of the American republics as "Bourgeois Republics": the racialized figure of the republican mother as teacher, and the teacher as mother. Spanning the mid-19th century all the way to the postwar Spanish–Cuban–American war of 1898, Genova traces this trope in a fascinating array of canonical and noncanonical literary texts, as well as in legal writings, poetry, private correspondence, political essays, travelogues and memoirs. His book offers new readings of classics such as Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's Viajes: Europa, Africa, América (1849), Cirilo Villaverde's Cecilia Valdés (1882), and James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1826), in dialogue with other, lesser known texts that reveal the outstanding level of hemispheric cultural porosity among foundational novels, travelogues and memoirs. In conversation with scholarship that reads nationalism and regionalism as a reaction and at the same time a product of imperialism, Genova invites us, among other original interventions, to read Eduarda Mansilla's Lucía Miranda as an old creole Hispanophile's reaction to the Americanization of the national-civilizatory discourse mobilized by Sarmiento's readings of Cooper. The book also offers nuanced readings of Mary Mann's recently recovered Juanita (1887) and Martín Morúa Delgado's (1891) Sofía as different, yet dialoguing, interventions about what model of cultural reproduction (or miscarriage) is better suited for racially diverse republics such as Cuba. Genova's central argument is that education—as a republican duty assigned to women—traversed the debates about how to civilize and incorporate into the fledgling republic a vastly diverse panorama of racialized peoples. The consequences of focusing on the crossings of education, gender and race with a hemispheric scope are manifold and inspiring. First, in line with other scholars, this crossing entails seeing Latin America as a "deeper South" that partakes of northern North American stereotypes of the US South. Secondly, and stemming from this, Genova invites us to see the cultural (and sometimes familial) [End Page 324] connections between, say, the Cuban plantation elite and the US southern gentry. Thirdly, the book places emphasis on novelists writing foundational fictions at the end of the 19th century not only as writers but as readers of this particular genre, and as such, conscious of the narrative opportunities and shortcomings of this pedagogical literary corpus. Thanks to it, Cirilo Villaverde is uncovered as a reader not only of the mid-19th-century Latin American and US canon (Marmol's Amalia, Blest Gana's Martín Rivas or even Delaney's Blake?), and Cuban (Morúa Delgado) and non-Cuban writers (Mary Mann) are seen as readers that rewrite Cecilia Valdés (for Morúa Delgado this has been the typical read), but in doing so, center other ways of conceiving of gender, race and education in the island's turn-of-the-century literature. Imperial Educación is divided into two parts composed of three chapters each. Chapters one, two and three dwell on Argentina–US relations after Rosa's exile, while chapters...

China's Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order by Dawn C. Murphy

Reviewed by: China's Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order by Dawn C. Murphy Jiarui Wu Murphy, Dawn C. China's Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2022. [End Page 237] China's rise as an economic powerhouse competing with the United States for power and influence globally is a development that has received mixed reactions from different players on the global scene. While to African nations, China's interest and support of developmental projects have been received as a blessing by these nations, the Western world and especially the United States remain wary and critical of China's growing influence in these developing nations. Fears of neocolonialism and the support of nations of interest that might lead to the resurgence of terrorist groups are some of the areas of concern raised by the United States. China's interest in the Middle East also concerns the United States. The Middle East is a central national interest area for the United States, which is concerned with fighting ISIS, preventing Iran from gaining nuclear power, and providing support to Israel. Competition for resources is also a critical factor in the emerging competition between China and the United States. Africa and the Middle East are rich in valuable resources, and China's interest in them raises concerns about the United States' future access to the resources. Additionally, it is still unclear whether China will be a cooperative or competitive player in the global market. Dawn Murphy's book provides an in-depth analysis of China's increased involvement in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa and the implications from a global perspective. Although China's relations with Africa are not a new development, the increase in its involvement in Africa and its increased influence on Africa's politics, economy, and provision of foreign aid and military engagements have raised Western nations' interest as they try to figure out how China's increased involvement will shift the global power dynamics. Similarly, China's increased sway in the Middle East threatens to shift the power dynamics in an area where the United States previously held much sway. The book looks at China's approach in relating to African and Middle Eastern nations. It also provides an in-depth look at the tools China employs in its foreign policy, including China's cooperation forums, United Nations (UN) Security Council voting, foreign aid, and free trade agreements. By providing a detailed look at China's approach, the book objectively compares China's and the United States' approaches and notes areas of similarity and divergences between the two. This comparison provides an excellent basis for predicting future China–US relations. Studies by various authors have reached vastly different conclusions on the impact of China–Africa relations, while the impact of its relations with Middle [End Page 238] Eastern nations has largely been understudied. The book argues that despite China not aggressively attempting to interfere in US–Africa relations, its rapid growth puts it in a competitive place with Western nations and makes it challenge the "rules of the liberal international system as it increasingly builds spheres of influence in these areas" (8). In essence, although not in outright competition, China–Africa/Middle East interactions are creating an alternative international order that might eventually lead to the collapse of the existing system and the emergence of a new order primarily influenced by China's model. The possibility of such development provides ample basis for the global interest in studying China's activities in African and Middle Eastern nations. In a departure from previous studies that have focused on the arising China–US tensions in their look at China's increasing influence in Africa, Murphy adopts a new approach. The author proposes a more wholesome approach to understanding China's growing influence in these regions. Rather than just focusing on the competitive relationship between the two nations, the book also analyzes the areas of cooperation. For example, some areas where China–US cooperation can be observed are participation in UN peacekeeping operations, limiting arms sales...