| This thesis examines how the United States is responding to the competitive challenge posed by India and China through an examination of two case studies: outsourcing of information technology sector jobs to India and U.S. trade deficits with China. The thesis argues the Bush administration has resisted domestic protectionist pressures, in the case of India and China, at least partly because of ideational and geostrategic factors. While acknowledging the potential importance of societal and state level approaches in explaining Bush administration's opposition to domestic protectionism towards India and China, this thesis offers a complementary interpretation that synthesizes ideas and national interests. Its realist constructivist perspective provides such a plausible system-level approach for this study. The aim and significance of this thesis, then, is to gain some insight into the general determinants of the American foreign economic policy and find a plausible interpretation of how this status quo power is "adjusting" to the rise of these two new powers in the international political economy. |
