SPIS TREŚCI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

This paper will answer the question of the viability of Vietnam’s strategy for survival. How sustainable is the enmeshment and balancing strategy? Due to its geopolitical position, Vietnam has found itself on a precipice: almost all significant and regional powers find themselves seeking a partnership with Vietnam. Vietnam has also pursued these partnerships, hoping to stabilize and strengthen the state’s position. It is all the more important due to rising tensions in the South China Sea. Independence and survival are overreaching themes of Vietnamese foreign policy. The main strategy is for great and regional powers to balance each other out in the region, allowing Vietnam the greatest possible decision-making freedom. There is however a question of the viability of that balancing strategy. Certain strategic partnerships, like those with India, Japan, or the US, have been developed, but only to a degree, and their viability has yet to be tested. It is possible that this course of action, calculated to balance China’s influence in the region, might backfire in the end, returning the region to the Chinese sphere of influence as predicted by David Kang.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the dominant role of transactional drivers in India’s foreign policy towards the European Union (EU). The article hypothesizes that India is trying to use its relationship with the EU in primarily transactional ways to achieve its own foreign and economic policy goals rather than to advance shared norms and values as democratic powers. Those goals include (i) leveraging its global image and reputation as a trusted and credible international partner, (ii) gaining greater regional and global influence, (iii) attracting foreign investment and boosting Indian exports. The article begins by explaining the concept of transactionalism in foreign policies. Secondly, it identifies the main drivers of India-EU relations with a special focus on (i) the concept of non-alignment and strategic autonomy in India’s foreign policy, (ii) common norms and values shared by India and the EU, (iii) economic cooperation between India and the EU. Thirdly, it assesses the transactional dimensions of the drivers of Indian foreign policy toward the EU discussed in the preceding sections. Finally, it evaluates the significance of India’s attempts to use its relations with the EU to achieve its own foreign and economic policy goals, including with respect to the implications for the EU’s efforts to project itself as a normative power in relations with India.

The Attitude of the United States Towards the Communist Party of China (1944–1946)

The article represents the first part of a comprehensive scientific endeavor dedicated to the description and analysis of the attitudes held by high-ranking US officials towards the Chinese Communist Party from 1944 to 1949. This initial segment focuses on the period from July 1944, marking the commencement of the so-called "Dixie mission" in China, to the conclusion of March 1946, coinciding with the country's outbreak of the civil war. Within this framework, the article presents, analyzes, and underscores the diversity and changeability of American perspectives and opinions regarding the CCP. It explores their ideas, actions, and connections with Soviet Russia. A particular emphasis is placed on elucidating the alterations in these opinions over time. The central hypothesis posits that the shifts in attitudes were driven by changes in both the internal and external environments, encompassing developments within China and the global context. Furthermore, it attributes alterations to American interactions with CCP and KMT officials, leading to modifications in their identities. The article employs a constructivist approach, alongside a realist perspective, in researching international relations throughout the text.

The book under review is a collection of essays analyzing Pakistan’s past, attempting to reevaluate it in a critical, myth-debunking way, and describing the country’s present state while formulating some prescriptions for the future. Many parts of the book reveal the author’s deep insight, showing the fallacies of the official discourse in Pakistan. However, Hoodbhoy’s discourse is often flawed by his disdain for religion, resulting in shallow and biased (if not simply wrong) analyses of Islamic-based thought, and by his inability to reconcile his commitment to modernism as a foundation of good politics with democratic principles.

My Second Home China. Jan Rowiński in Memoriam