Choosing cooperation strategies: The United States and regional arrangements in Asia and Europe in the early post-W.W.II years

This dissertation examines two puzzles, one theoretical and one empirical. It offers an analytical framework to explain when and why would a great power choose to cooperate with smaller regional partners through a regional, rather than bilateral or global-multilateral cooperation arrangement. The initial preference ordering for different forms of cooperation is explained by their ability to reconcile conflicting policy goals that decision-makers want to advance simultaneously. A central conflict is that between the desire to expand foreign policy commitments for different reasons and the pressures to reduce the costs of foreign policy. The final policy choice is then influenced by the regional power disparities and by the preferences of the potential regional partners.; The empirical puzzle addressed here is why did the United States choose in the early post-W.W.II years to create mainly bilateral cooperation arrangements with its partners in Asia, whereas it supported the creation of regional cooperation arrangements in Western Europe. Policy toward Asia is the central part of the empirical research, while the American policy toward Western Europe is examined in a comparative perspective. Furthermore, upon closer examination of the cases, a second puzzle appears, namely why was there an interest in creating regional cooperation arrangements in Asia as well at that time, even though that interest in most part did not materialize.; The first half of the dissertation examines the issue of security cooperation by analyzing American policy with regard to the option of creating a Pacific Pact, the creation of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization, and the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty. The second half of the dissertation examines the issue of economic cooperation by analyzing American foreign economic policy regarding the revival of Japan's postwar trade, the provision of aid for economic development in Asia, and the Marshall Plan.