CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Peragovics, Tamas |
|---|---|
| Title | Difference Worthy of Mediation? US-China Rapprochement Reappraised in a New Framework of Diplomatic Normalization |
| Summary | This thesis is an investigation into diplomatic normalization. It seeks to understand how and why erstwhile enemies enter into diplomatic relations with one another. The thesis claims that this is a process of change. To explore the unfolding of this process, the thesis introduces a new framework of diplomatic normalization with three stages. The first is estrangement, or the problematization of the old state of affairs in which the absence of diplomatic relations is accepted as a matter of course. The second is conceptualization, or the articulation of a new purpose of the relationship in which the turn to diplomatic relations becomes a desirable change. The third, and final, stage is enactment, or the implementation of diplomatic relations in the form of diplomatic dialogue between erstwhile enemies. Overall, diplomatic mediation is triggered if it is necessary as well as possible in the relationship. Empirically, the thesis demonstrates the analytical purchase of this framework in the case of US-China rapprochement. It finds that the need for diplomatic relations with China were rooted in the Nixon-administration’s estrangement from conventional ways of thinking about, as well as practicing, American foreign policy. This estrangement led to a conceptualization of US foreign policy in terms of realpolitik in which improved ties with China became a desirable change. Diplomatic normalization was enacted in the pioneering diplomatic encounters of Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai in 1971. The success of these meetings depended on accepting the American claim that the Nixon-administration is different from previous administrations, and that this difference lies in its exceptional political agency to change relations with China. In opposition to the mainstream literature on US-China rapprochement, the thesis shows that the great convergence in realpolitik between the US and the PRC did not happen. Realpolitik was simply the kernel of a social narrative nurtured by the Nixon-administration in its dealings with China. It fueled diplomatic dialogue because it established in the American perspective a fundamental similarity between the American self and the Chinese other. Therefore, it was change in American normative disposition, rather than change in China’s foreign policy fueled by an objective Soviet threat, that triggered the process of diplomatic normalization. |
| Supervisor | Astrov, Alexander |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/peragovics_tamas.pdf |
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