Robert G. Sutter

Bio: Robert G. Sutter is an academic researcher from George Washington University. The author has contributed to research in topics: China & Foreign policy. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 68 publications receiving 701 citations. Previous affiliations of Robert G. Sutter include Georgetown University & Congressional Research Service.

Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy since the Cold War

Abstract: Chapter 1: Strategy and Continuity in Contemporary Chinese Foreign Policy Chapter 2: Chinese Leadership Priorities: Implications for Chinese Foreign Relations Chapter 3: Changing Patterns in Decision Making and International Outlook Chapter 4: China's Role in the World Economy and International Governance Chapter 5: Chinese National Security Policies Chapter 6: Relations with the United States Chapter 7: Relations with Taiwan Chapter 8: Relations with Japan and Korea Chapter 9: Relations with Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands Chapter 10: Relations with Southern Asia and Central Asia Chapter 11: Relations with Russia and Europe Chapter 12: Relations with the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America Chapter 13: Prospects Selected Bibliography

China's rise in Asia : promises and perils

Abstract: Chapter 1 Salient Determinants of China's Recent Approach to Asia and its Implications for the United States Chapter 2 Recent Chinese Domestic and Foreign Policies and Priorities Chapter 3 China's Relations with the United States Chapter 4 China's Relations with Russia Chapter 5 Relations with Japan Chapter 6 Relations with the Korean Peninsula Chapter 7 China-Southeast Asia Relations Chapter 8 Relations with Taiwan Chapter 9 Relations with South Asia Chapter 10 Relations with Central Asia Chapter 11 Conclusion: China's Peaceful Approach to Asia and its Implications for the United States

U.S.-Chinese Relations: Perilous Past, Pragmatic Present

Abstract: Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview Chapter 2 Patterns of American-Chinese Relations Prior to World War II Chapter 3 Relations during World War II, Civil War, Cold War Chapter 4 Rapprochement and Normalization Chapter 5 Tiananmen, Taiwan, and Post-Cold War realities, 1989-2000 Chapter 6 U.S.-China Policy Priorities and Implications for Relations in the Twenty-First Century Chapter 7 An Emerging U.S.-China Equilibrium in the Twenty-First Century Chapter 8 Security Issues in Contemporary U.S.-China Relations Chapter 9 Economic and Environmental Issues in Contemporary U.S.-China Relations Chapter 10 Taiwan Issues in Contemporary U.S.-China Relations Chapter 11 Issues of Human Rights in Contemporary U.S.-China Relations Chapter 12 Outlook: Continued Positive Equilibrium amid Differences and Suspicions Chapter 13 Selected Bibliography

Rapprochement or Rivalry? Russia-China Relations in a Changing Asia. Edited by Sherman W. Garnett. Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2000. x, 439 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Abstract: The emerging relationship between China and Russia is perhaps the most important force redefining international relations in post-Cold War Asia. In the past five years, Russia and China have built a ""strategic partnership aimed at the 21st century,"" a development that deeply worries some Western observers and puzzles others. In this first comprehensive study of Russian-Chinese relations, Sherman Garnett and a team of 15 U.S., Russian, and Chinese scholars analyze the most important issues posed by the relationship, including cross-border trade, the impact of Russia's center-periphery politics, migration, arms sales, and (mis)perceptions of one another. The book assesses what will be one of the most important relationships, economically and strategically, in the dynamic region stretching from Central Asia to the Far East. It also weighs the prospects for real cooperation between Russia, a severely weakened power, and China, a power on the rise. Contributing authors include Stephen Blank, Sherman Garnett, Vilya Gel'bras, Harry Gelman, Li Jingjie, Michael McFaul, Lu Nanquan, Martha Olcott, Gilbert Rozman, Judith Thornton, Dmitri Trenin, Tamara Troyakova, Galina Vitkovskaya, Alexei Voskressenski, Elizabeth Wishnick, and Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya.

Status Seekers: Chinese and Russian Responses to U.S. Primacy

Abstract: The United States needs support from other states to carry out global governance, particularly from rising powers such as China and Russia. Securing cooperation from China and Russia poses special problems, however, because neither state is part of the liberal Western community, ruling out appeals to common values and norms. Nevertheless, an alternative approach that is rooted in appreciation of China's and Russia's heightened status concerns may be viable. Since the end of the Cold War, Chinese and Russian foreign policy has been shaped by the goal of restoring both countries' great power status, which received major blows after China's Tiananmen Square repression and the Soviet Union's breakup and loss of empire. This desire for status can be explained by social identity theory, which argues that social groups strive for a distinctive, positive identity. Social identity theory provides a typology of strategies that states may use to enhance their relative status and suggests appropriate responses to sta...

Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies

Abstract: The small and medium-sized states in Southeast Asia have faced significant geostrategic changes with the end of the Cold War and the rise of China. Over the last decade, scholars have debated how these countries would cope with growing Chinese power, and how their relations with the other major powers in the region would change. Some analysts have suggested that the region is shifting toward a more China-centered order, but this view is premature. Eschewing the simple dichotomy of balancing versus bandwagoning, Southeast Asian countries do not want to choose between the two major powers, the United States and China. This avoidance strategy is not merely tactical or time-buying; instead, Southeast Asian states have actively tried to influence the shape of the new regional order. Key Southeast Asian states are pursuing two main pathways to order in the region: the “omni-enmeshment” of major powers and complex balance of influence. They have helped to produce an interim power distribution outcome, which is a...

The coming of environmental authoritarianism

Abstract: The East Asian region generally and Southeast Asia in particular have long been associated with authoritarian rule. It is argued that the intensification of a range of environmental problems means that authoritarian rule is likely to become even more commonplace there in the future. Countries with limited state capacity will struggle to deal with the consequences of population expansion, economic development and the environmental degradation with which they are associated. A resurgence of authoritarian rule is made even more likely by China's ‘successful’ developmental example and the extent of the region's existing environmental problems. The dispiriting reality may be that authoritarian regimes – unattractive as they may be – may even prove more capable of responding to the complex political and environmental pressures in the region than some of its democracies.

Fostering Stability or Creating a Monster? The Rise of China and U.S. Policy toward East Asia

Abstract: This article explores two starkly contrasting analytic approaches to assessing the performance of U.S. security strategy in East Asia since 1991: a positivesum approach, emphasizing the danger of security dilemmas and spirals of tension, and a zero-sum approach, emphasizing power competition and the long-term dangers posed by China's rise. In the policy world, the differences between these apparently irreconcilable perspectives are not so clear. Certain policies—for example, maintaining a strong U.S.-Japan alliance—flow from either logic. Moreover, each approach sometimes counsels counterintuitive policy prescriptions that are generally associated with the other. Relatively assertive U.S. security postures apparently have furthered positive-sum regional goals by catalyzing China to adopt reassuring policies toward its neighbors as a hedge against potential U.S. encirclement. From a zero-sum perspective, the United States often competes more effectively for regional influence by cooperating with China than...

Containment or Engagement of China?: Calculating Beijing's Responses

Abstract: that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is becoming a defining element in post-Cold War international politics, but there is much debate about what this entails and how the world should deal with an ascendant China. China’s rise and behavior are particularly bedeviling to the United States, but Beijing also poses substantial challenges to Asian and European nations as well as international regimes. Whether China will become a military threat to its neighbors, an adversary of the United States, a systemic challenge to the global order, or an cultural-ideological challenge to the West remain open questions.’ But China’s sheer size and growing power are already altering the contours of Asian security, international commerce, and the global balance of power. A robust debate is under way in Western and Asian nations about how best to deal with the awakened dragon. The uncertainties about China’s future capabilities and intentions, and the debate about alternative policy options, have spawned a lucrative cottage industry among analysts and pundits in academia, corporations, banks, governments, and the media worldwide. Analysts can reasonably estimate China’s economic and military power a decade or more hence based on its present and projected financial, technological and material resources. Far more difficult to predict is China’s internal political and social cohesion, and how Beijing will wield its new strength. Will China be a satisfied mature power or an insecure nounem riche power? Will it become a power at all? Will it flex its muscles or will they atrophy? Will China hold together or fall apart? Will its polity evolve liberally or revert to a dictatorial tyranny? Does Beijing seek regional hegemony or peaceful coexistence with its neighbors? Will the PRC play by the established rules of the international organizations and regimes, or does Beijing seek to undermine and change the rules and institutions? Do China’s leaders understand the rules and