ABSTRACT
The recent competition between China and the United States has driven the majority of states in the Asia Pacific to rethink their positions and redesign corresponding strategies. This book introduces and analyzes the responses of middle powers in the Asia Pacific toward the contemporary great power rivalry through the specific cases of South Korea, Australia, Japan, India, Taiwan, and Vietnam. We focus on the role of middle powers, for they are expected to shoulder the task of maintaining the international order and shaping the development of the international arena providing that they are able to work together. As a majority of contributing authors reside in the Asia-Pacific region, the perspectives provided here have to the greatest extent revealed local views. Although the analytical focuses are on empirical cases, this book communicates with theories of foreign policy analyses through initiating certain crucial concepts which form the solid analytical frameworks in each chapter. These include reluctant hedging, economic statecraft, and strategic position-taking. We believe that students and researchers whose work focuses on the foreign policy making of middle powers, East Asian international politics, and the impact of U.S.–China competition will find this volume particularly inspiring and helpful in their studies.
