Sino-American military relations determinants of policy and corresponding military responsiveness

share information and promote transparency. Unfortunately, domestic and international factors have blunted cooperation in the past two decades. Many are quick to argue that the political turmoil caused by internationally significant events such as the Tiananmen Square Crisis, the Taiwan Strait Crises, the Chinese Embassy bombing, and the EP-3 Incident disrupted defense-related exchanges and cooperation. Further examination of U.S. military relations policy displaces these casual observations in favor of explanations based on more complex domestic political agendas and bureaucratic politics in the DoD that led to more enduring changes in policy and implementation. This examination found: the CDRUSPACOM was the most engaged and consistent advocate of increased military-to-military relations across a broad spectrum of contacts regardless of the temperament in Washington, D.C.; while internationally significant events impacted military relations for a short period, the more enduring shifts in military-to-military policy were driven by domestic politics and defense leadership changes; and despite claims of "gaining momentum" by many of the actors in both nations, military-to-military contacts appear no better off in 2006 than in the 1980s.

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Ford, Christopher T.

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Twomey, Christopher P.
• Miller, Alice Lyman

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/3540

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/3540