Study On American Policies In Northeastern Asia International Relations (1784-1931)

The importance of studying US policy in Northeast Asia lies in that the US policy had a crucial influence in the development and changes of Northeast Asian international relations. The US policy in Northeastern Asia showed a strong"staging"and"inheriting"features which are valuable in our research in the present US international relation policy in Northeast Asia. With a review of the past, this dissertation tends to provide insights to the present ever-growing complications in Northeast Asia international relations by exploring the US—an out-of-region influential power—policies. The dissertation outlines"regional"policy of the US in Northeast Asia by searching the changes of Northeast Asia international relation pattern, summaries an overt"policy chain"designed by US at different"times"so as to show the contents, features and regulations of the US policies in Northeast Asia.The dissertation is composed of 3 parts with 6 chapters.The First Part is the introduction of briefing the significance of study, goal, points of argument, method of study, outlines, special focus, difficult researching parts, literature review, definitions and structure of the dissertation.Being the main body, the second part (composed of chapter 2,3,4,5 and 6) concerns different US Northeast Asia policies in order of time.The First Phase: traditional oriental order– policies made in the falling time of"Hua-Yi Order"(1784-1894),the 100 years with the starting time of"Empress of China's"maiden voyage to Guangzhou till the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. US Policies in this time showed vague goals and detail-less and probing features: by exploiting the limited US national power to offer aids to private institutions for seizing business opportunities. The special features of the times were that the policy was not strongly supported as the interests in Northeastern Asia did not become the center of the US national interests thus forming no main goal in the government diplomatic relations. The policies made at the time were crude, non-regulated and sometime even out of order as they were baseless and non-mechanized. Also, the policies showed cautious, conservative features in goal deciding and way of achieving.The Second Phase:"Hua-Yi Order"collapsing time policy (1894-1903) which was the 10 year time from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 till the break of Japan-Russia War. With the economic power enhanced and interests increased in Northeast Asia, US policies become more explicit trying to shed influences in the regional politics, thus forming"Open-door Policy". Though economic interest was the primary concern, US began to lay stress on political aspects, trying to nurture a pattern that fit the US interests. But after the civil war and reconstruction, the rapid expansion in space in America absorbs the shock-wave of US economic increase. Thus, the US involvement in international events in Northeast Asia, although with active and leading idea, was far from being up to their ambition.The Third Phase: policies in the great adjustment time of Northeast Asia (1904-1914) which was the 10 year time from the post Japan-Russia War till the outbreak of the World War I. During this period, the US policies changed from supporting Japan, resisting Russia and forming balanced power to limiting Japan, fighting Japan and to once again compromising Japan. Thus, US-Japan relation became the core issue of the US Northeast Asia policy making. Since the China-Japan War of 1894-1895, Japan developed into a powerful international nation, beginning to get more and more involved in the international chess game in Northeast Asia after Russia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the tune turned is played by China, Japan and Russia with Japan playing the key instruments. In the competition between Japan and Russia, USA showed a policy of carefully constructing"balance", trying all out to stop the upstart of the"superpower nation"in the region.The Fourth Phase: the policies during the time of disorder after the World War I (1912-1922). With the downfall of Qing Dynasty and Tsar Russia, and the lost of competing position of the traditional powers, Japan gained the advantage in the political realm in Northeast Asia leading to the unprecedented chaos in the region. In the new regional political pattern, Wilson Administration tried to shed influence, but they finally turned from offensiveness to defensiveness due to their non-adjustment in strategy and basis-less policy making and finally resulted in compromise. The US policy at the time had the features that they weighed too much on the losses and gains and was not willing to give up the gained interests in face of thread, but did not have effective measures, that they did not want to compromise to the challenger, but at the at time did not have a clear idea of the situation, and did not look for the potential allies so as to form an united power to cope with the challenger, and that they did not adjust the focal position of interest to change the"European Priority"strategy, but at the same time not willing to withdraw or concentrate power in Northeast Asia with promising interests prospect. All these put USA in dilemma in its foreign policy. On the contrary, Japanese aimed at forming allies with the powerful nations in Northeast Asia and searching for new internationally breakthrough in political, economic, military, cultural realms with all Japanese national power. The results were seen as a tilted scale favoring Japanese. It was not until 1922 when US stopped the tilting of the scale in the region by allying other nations.The Fifth Phase:"Versailles-Washington"time policy. The time showed the aspiring trend in US policy making, but it actually fell into the strategic mistake with unclear, wandering goals in strategic interests in Northeast Asia policies. Especially, the rise in"anti-communist"and"ideological"issues wore greatly the economic and political energy, which made the desire of stabilizing Northeast Asia a dream. The United States were to have more than 10 years in the 30s of the 20th century of painful and total change before the real decisive turnover could appear. A time was over.The Third Part: conclusion. This part provides comprehensive analysis and review on the forming mechanism and causes of the US Northeast Asia policies since 30s of the 20th century, and summarizes the law and essence of the US Northeast Asia policies.