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"Eastern question (Far East)"
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Civilization, Nation and Modernity in East Asia
This book explores the crisis of cultural identity which has assaulted Asian countries since Western countries began to have a profound impact on Asia in the nineteenth century. Confronted by Western 'civilization' and by 'modernity', Asian countries have been compelled to rethink their identity, and to consider how they should relate to Western 'civilization' and 'modernity'. The result, the author argues, has been a redefining by Asian countries of their own character as nations, and an adaptation of 'civilization' and 'modernity' to their own special conditions. Asian nations, the author contends, have thereby engaged with the West and with modernity, but on their own terms, occasionally, and in various inconsistent ways in which they could assert a sense of difference, forcing changes in the Western concept of civilization. Drawing on postmodern theory, the Kyoto School, Confucian and other traditional Asian thought, and the actual experiences of Asian countries, especially China and Japan, the author demonstrates that Asian countries' redefining of the concept of civilization in the course of their quest for an appropriate postmodern national identity is every bit as key a part of 'the rise of Asia' as economic growth or greater international political activity.
eBook
Pacific Strife
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, colonial powers clashed over much of Central and East Asia: Great Britain and Germany fought over New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, and Samoa; France and Great Britain competed over control of continental Southwest Asia; and the United States annexed the Philippines and Hawaii. Meanwhile, the possible disintegration of China and Japan’s growing nationalism added new dimensions to the rivalries.
Surveying these and other international developments in the Pacific basin during the three decades preceding World War I, Kees van Dijk traces the emergence of superpowers during the colonial race and analyzes their conduct as they struggled for territory. Extensive in scope, Pacific Strife is a fascinating look at a volatile moment in history.
eBook
The Eurasian Triangle
Even the best books on international history are ignorant of the secret war against the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union waged jointly by the Caucasian peoples and Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. This book explores and exposes previously unknown passages in Eurasian international history. Although the secret war ultimately failed in liberating the Caucasian peoples, the lessons of this Eurasian collaboration were not lost on the United States, which after World War II confronted the Soviet Union just as Japan had earlier. Washington copied the strategy of its former enemy and developed it further. The Eurasian triangle of Russia, the Caucasus, and Japan is a forgotten history of cardinal importance that, stretching from the Russo-Japanese War to World War II, influenced Western Cold War strategies. This book is also the story of a friendship rare in international politics between two unlikely partners unspoiled by political vicissitudes.
eBook
Pacific Strife
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, colonial powers clashed over much of Central and East Asia: Great Britain and Germany fought over New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, and Samoa; France and Great Britain competed over control of continental Southwest Asia; and the United States annexed the Philippines and Hawaii. Meanwhile, the possible disintegration of China and Japan’s growing nationalism added new dimensions to the rivalries. Surveying these and other international developments in the Pacific basin during the three decades preceding World War I, Kees van Dijk traces the emergence of superpowers during the colonial race and analyzes their conduct as they struggled for territory. Extensive in scope, 'Pacific Strife' is a fascinating look at a volatile moment in history. \"Van Dijk's work will richly reward readers of nearly any interest level.\" -J. Rogers in Choice Magazine
eBook
American Orient
Surveying the American fascination with the Far East since the mideighteenth century, this book explains why the Orient had a fundamentally different meaning in the United States than in Europe or Great Britain. David Weir argues that unlike their European counterparts, Americans did not treat the East simply as a site of imperialist adventure; on the contrary, colonial subjugation was an experience that early Americans shared with the peoples of China and India. In eighteenthcentury America, the East was, paradoxically, a means of reinforcing the enlightenment values of the West: Franklin, Jefferson, and other American writers found in Confucius a complement to their own political and philosophical beliefs. In the nineteenth century, with the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy, the Hindu Orient emerged as a mystical alternative to American reality. During this period, Emerson, Thoreau, and other Transcendentalists viewed the “Oriental” not as an exotic other but as an image of what Americans could be, if stripped of all the commercialism and materialism that set them apart from their ideal. A similar sense of Oriental otherness informed the aesthetic discoveries of the early twentieth century, as Pound, Eliot, and other poets found in Chinese and Japanese literature an artistic purity and intensity absent from Western tradition. For all of these figures the Orient became a complex fantasy that allowed them to overcome something objectionable, either in themselves or in the culture of which they were a part, in order to attain some freer, more genuine form of philosophical, religious, or artistic expression.
eBook
The Open Door Era
Examines the Open Door, the most influential U.S. foreign policy of the twentieth century
In 1899, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay wrote six world powers calling for an 'Open Door' in China that would guarantee equal trading opportunities, curtail colonial annexation, and prevent conflict in the Far East. Within a year, the region had succumbed to renewed colonisation and war, but despite the apparent failure of Hay's diplomacy, the ideal of the Open Door emerged as the central component of U.S. foreign policy in the twentieth century. Just as visions of 'Manifest Destiny' shaped continental expansion in the nineteenth century, Woodrow Wilson used the Open Door to make the case for a world 'safe for democracy', Franklin Roosevelt developed it to inspire the fight against totalitarianism and imperialism, and Cold War containment policy envisioned international communism as the latest threat to a global system built upon peace, openness, and exchange. In a concise yet wide-ranging examination of its origins and development, readers will discover how the idea of the Open Door came to define the American Century.
Key Features
Uncovers the ideological wellspring of U.S. foreign policy in the twentieth century
Presents debates over U.S. foreign policy, including the 'Wisconsin School' critique of the Open Door as a mechanism of informal empire
Reveals both the consistency of U.S. foreign policy thinking and offers a deeper context to critical foreign policy decisions
Contextulises the roots of contemporary U.S. policy
eBook
Japan's Dream of World Empire
Described as the Japanese Mein Kampf, this small pamphlet outlines the history of Japan which by the late 1920s was, according to the author, becoming a dream for world domination. Although this did not come to fruition, the book nonetheless represents a fascinating insight into the national psyche and political and military planning of the Japanese in the first half of the twentieth century. It focuses particularly on the Japanese policy in Manchuria and Mongolia.
eBook
The Crimean (Eastern) War of 1853–1856 in Modern Russian Historiography
Modern Russian historiography of the Crimean (Eastern) War of 1853–1856 is analyzed with an emphasis on research of the last decade and historiographic reviews of previous periods (V.E. Bagdasaryan, S.G. Tolstoi, V.I. Sheremet, O.V. Pavlenko, S.S. Kurochkin, etc.). In 2013–2014, the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the Crimean War and the defense of Sevastopol was celebrated, and the works of Crimean historians replenished Russian historiography not only de facto but also de jure. Where necessary, references are given to earlier basic works, as well as the latest publications of sources. Apart from the articles published in the period 2014–first half of 2023, about 30 collections of documents, monographs, and dissertation abstracts were published from 2014 through the first half of 2023, covering various aspects of the study of the Crimean War. This historiographical review is structured according to a thematic principle. Studies are consistently analyzed on such topics as the influence of the Eastern question (the dispute over the “Holy Places”) in the diplomatic outbreak of the war; the state of the armed forces of Russia and the European coalition consisting of Great Britain, France, Sardinia (Piedmont), and the Ottoman Empire; military operations in various theaters of war; the role of individual military leaders; the results of the war; public opinion; humanitarian aspects (medicine, charity); the influence of the war on literature and art; and historical memory of the war. The analysis of modern historiography makes it possible to conclude that there is a gradually emerging discourse that the extent of Russia’s defeat in the war was previously significantly exaggerated, that it was not a “catastrophe” for Russia. Despite the admission of defeat, Russia remained a great power and was able to begin reforms and modernization of its entire socioeconomic structure, gradually strengthening its position in the changing world.
Journal Article
