Re-examining the Cold War

The twelve essays in this volume underscore the similarities between Chinese and American approaches to bilateral diplomacy and between their perceptions of each other’s policy-making motivations. Much of the literature on U.S.–China relations posits that each side was motivated either by ideologically informed interests or by ideological assumptions about its counterpart. But as these contributors emphasize, newly accessible archives suggest rather that both Beijing and Washington developed a responsive and tactically adaptable foreign policy. Each then adjusted this policy in response to changing international circumstances and changing assessments of its counterpart’s policies. Motivated less by ideology than by pragmatic national security concerns, each assumed that the other faced similar considerations.

Robert S. Ross is Professor of Political Science at Boston College and a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Jiang Changbin is Director of the International Strategic Research Center, Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing. Robert Accinelli is Professor of History at the University of Toronto. Rosemary Foot is Professor of International Relations and the John Swire Senior Research Fellow at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. Steven M. Goldstein is Sophia Smith Professor of Government at Smith College. Gong Li is Professor of International Relations at the International Strategic Research Center, Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing. Jia Quingguo is Professor and Dean of the School of International Relations at Peking University. William C. Kirby is Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration and T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University, as well as Chair of the Harvard China Fund and Faculty Chair of the Harvard Center Shanghai. His many books include Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth. Li Chi is Professor in the Department for Research on Party Documents, Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Ronald W. Pruessen is Chair of the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Michael Schaller is Professor of History at the University of Arizona. Robert D. Schulzinger is Professor of History and Director of the International Affairs Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Zhang Baijia is Research Professor of the Party History Research Center of the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party.