Catching Fish With Two Hands: Vietnam's Hedging Strategy Towards China
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- China’s dramatic economic growth and ascendance onto the world stage has had large implications for neighboring Southeast Asian states that, while enthusiastic about growth opportunities, are still apprehensive of Chinese dominance in the region. As a result, most scholars maintain that states in the region have chosen to “hedge” against China by cultivating positive relations with all large states involved in the region. Current literature on hedging is insufficiently nuanced since it treats hedging as a fixed foreign policy strategy in between balancing and bandwagoning. Furthermore, existing explanations generally consider only one plane of hedging, namely how small states cultivate relations with other powers to hedge against a threatening state. This paper contributes to existing literature on hedging in two ways. First, it proposes a three-dimensional approach for understanding hedging that considers how domestic, foreign, and sectoral factors affect small-states’ hedging strategy. Second, this thesis examines two cases of Vietnamese foreign policy towards China in the 21st century using this three- dimensional framework. More specifically, this paper analyzes one case study in the economic realm, bauxite mining in the Central Highlands, and one in the security sphere, the open port policy of Cam Ranh Bay. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates the fluid processes of hedging across issues and the need for a better understanding of these dynamics in the Southeast Asian context.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 2, 2014 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Colberg, Claire | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Emmerson, Don |
Subjects
| Subject | Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Subject | China |
| Subject | hedging |
| Subject | Cam Ranh Bay |
| Subject | bauxite |
| Subject | bauxite mining |
| Subject | Southeast Asia |
| Subject | Center for International Security and Cooperation |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Colberg, Claire (2014). Catching Fish With Two Hands: Vietnam's Hedging Strategy Towards China. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/mx970sd1411.
Collection
Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses
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- Contact
- clairemaicolberg@gmail.com
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