YIP U.S. INFLUENCE IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC- LEGACY OF HISTORICAL AIRSTRIKES ON ANTI-AMERICAN SENTIMENT
Abstract
President Biden has endorsed an alliance of democracies approach to threats to U.S. interests emanating from the Western Pacific, shifting U.S. policy from expensive tariffs and bans to partnerships that will counter China’s coercive diplomacy. While U.S. military capabilities still dominate Asia, China continues to pull traditional U.S. allies closer through economic leverage and the projection of military power. Our proposal investigates how the U.S. military could strengthen relationships in the Pacific to counter Chinese expansion, by identifying the historical challenges in trying to win over local populations. The overriding theoretical goal is to determine the relative contributions of material interests, historical memory, and anti-American sentiments in undermining security arrangements between the U.S. and Western Pacific nations. Prevailing paradigms in academic studies of international relations and foreign policy focus on the establishment of cooperative alliances based on immediate material interests (e.g., economic conditions, physical security), whether as an end in itself or as the necessary first step to facilitate a convergence of values and identities. Yet, evidence from historical economics suggest that in Southeast Asia a deep distrust of the U.S. military, due to enduring legacies of the Vietnam War, can override immediate interests or lead to recalibration of interests that conforms to collective attitudes toward the U.S. We examine the interaction of conflict memories, interests, and values in the dissolution of American influence through a combination of ethnographic fieldwork, large-N surveys, and field experiments involving new measures and hypotheses, concentrating specifically on memory-driven resistance associated with different groups and conflict histories and how resistance may be affected (and possibly even strengthened) by high-profile U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502210187
Entities
People
- Erin Lin
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Ohio State University
- United States Air Force