Elements of Soft Power in The Open Door Policy: Beyond Liberalism and Realism Class: MAS 2016 Name: Yu Hanqi Lecturer: Dr. Martin Thunert 1 Introduction 1.1 The Open Door Policy The Open Door Policy refers to the United States foreign policy carried out to deal with the situation in China in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was first announced by John Hay, then Secretary of State, in his Open Door Note on September 6, 1899 and dispatched to the major European powers with vested influence and interests in China. If proposed to keep China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis, keeping any one power from total control of the country, and calling upon all powers, within their spheres of influence, to refrain from interfering …show more content…
The power relations in the Far East were undergoing drastic realignment as a result of the Russo-Japanese War. By the middle of 1905 the Japanese had proceeded to take over Russian rights and interests in South Manchuria, including the leasehold at Port Arthur and that part of the Russian-controlled Chinese Eastern Railway stretching from Changchun to Port Arthur. The Russians in North Manchuria and the Japanese in South Manchuria. 2.1 “American Exceptionalism”: The Idealism Approach The open door policy proclaimed a doctrine of freedom--of equality of privilege. It was a live and let-live policy; it rhymed with the lofty sentiments of the rights of man and the Declaration of Independence.[ Tyler Dennett, The Open Door Policy as Intervention, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 168, American Policy in the Pacific (Jul., 1933), p. 78] I have already pointed out how the American people responded to the first intervention in the Far East as a great ethical policy. We would free the downtrodden Filipinos from the blight of the Spanish rule and the Roman Catholic friars. We would “save China”.[ Tyler Dennett, The Open Door Policy as Intervention, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 168, American Policy in the Pacific (Jul., 1933), p. …show more content…
... Behind closed doors, however, the elites who make national security policy speak mostly the language of power, not that of principle. ... In essence, a discernible gap separates public rhetorics from the actual conduct of American foreign policy.” [ John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, New York: W. W. Norton, 2001] 2.2.1 Realism Policies and Liberalism Rhetorics Foreign policies also produce soft power when they promote broadly shared values such as democracy and human rights. Americans have wrestled with how to integrate our values with other interests since the early days of the republic.[ Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power - The Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs, 2004] Realist policies sometimes coincide with the dictates of liberalism, in which case there is no conflict between the pursuit of power and the pursuit of principle. Under theses circumstances, realist policies can be justified with liberal rhetoric without having the discuss the underlying power realities.[ John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, New York: W. W. Norton,
The Russo-Japanese war was a brief war that lasted for approximately one year that was stimulated from Russia’s desire to expand into Asian territory. The growth of the Russian empire specifically posed a problem for the Japanese because both Russia and Japan desired to obtain the same territory. On February 8, 1904, the rivalry between Russia and Japan over dominance in Korea and Manchuria became evident when the Japanese launched a surprise attack and siege on the Russian naval squadron at Port Arthur. The war continued with attacks on Russian territory in the Liaotung Peninsula, Mukden, Fu-hsien, Liao-yang, etc. The majority if not all of the battles were won by the Japanese military because Russia suffered from poor and corrupt military
The expansion of America was desirable, creating a false duty to get rid of barbaric influence from asianic countries to expand America’s empire. After the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines, Senator Albert Beveridge saw potential in recruiting the Philippines as US territory. He writes, “...The Philippines gives us a base at the door of all East”(Beveridge 1). He wanted to expand America's commercial trades with Asia, but in order to do so would need an ally near the east. Knowing that the Philippines had just come out of Spanish rule, Beveridge suggested in the letter that they were not capable of self-governing, and America's intervention would be needed.
Countries such as Germany, France, Europe, Britain and Japan participated in the “sphere of influence” because China had valuable resources and these countries can control an area of trade in China. As shown in document A, the countries are reaching towards China to take their resources. The United States felt threatened and left out because they weren’t participating, they decided to create the policy as a coverup to join in the sphere of influence and take a role of power in China wealth. The United States had the right to create the policy because they believed that China wasn’t suitable and it was necessary for them to do it. As Theodore Roosevelt said in the Annual Message to Congress, if a country can govern themselves, they won’t need U.S interference.
In the 19th century china and japan were under pressure when the west opened up foreign trade and relations. The industrial revolution created a wide gap between them and the west and left them behind in technology and the military. They both signed unequal treaties that forced them to open their ports and cities to foreign merchants. Both country's reacted very differently and this will be the topic of this essay.
First, there was Roosevelt's policy, Big Stick Deplomacy. Here, Roosevelt identifies the role of the United States, which is "policeman." United States wanted to see other nations "stable, orderly, and prosperous." They wanted to help countries just
Chapter 21: Progressivism from the Grass Roots to the White House Questions Notes What were the intentions of La Follette? Was Roosevelt a successful president? Why was Roosevelt a successful president? • As representative, La Follette brought down railroad rates, raised railroad charges, enhanced instruction, lectured preservation, set up processing plant regulation and laborers ' remuneration, organized the main direct essential in the nation, and initiated the principal state pay charge.
The attack comes without warning and President Harry Truman, with the help of the United Nations, vows to defend democratic South Korea. The Containment Policy stated that the US would support any nation that are being oppressed by communism and cannot protect themselves from it. This became America’s major reason to intervene in the Korean War. However, the policy of containment came under attack due casualties and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism.
As the United States started to expand and venture into a new and global age, it also started to intervene in other governments and marketplaces. In a new age known as “The Progressive Era”, so named for the many movements to take place during this time. As African American and women voters sought out their freedom to vote, and workers demanded more wagers and citizens demanded better politics, America was doing a great amount of changing. Beginning with American intervention in foreign countries, Aa perfect example is the, “Open Door Policy”, and the venture to keep free trade with China. As the U.S wanted to keep buying from and selling to the Chinese, it did everything possible to ensure this happened.
In the early 1900s, America along with Japan, Russia, and even Britain all looked to expand trade into Asia. One of the most sought-after areas was Manchuria in Northeast China. The land and the expansion of the railroad showed a huge opportunity for economic growth and success. In order to allow equal access to the area, Secretary of State John Hay sent out a series of notes called the Open Door notes which called Japan, Russia, and Britain to allow equal access to all of China’s markets and protection of China’s territory and sovereignty (Hay). However, after the Russo-Japanese war, Russia’s hand over the territory had weakened and much of the control was given to Japan.
As Albert J. Beveridge pointed out in Document B, “would not the people of the Philippines prefer the just, human, civilizing government of this republic to the savage, bloody rule… from which we have saved them?” Just, human, civilizing? Strict, biased, Christianizing was more like it. In these islands, the United States of America once again made the same mistake it had made with the Native Americans. Determined that there way was the best way, ‘the slaughter of the Filipinos’ (Doc.
William McKinley in his thoughts on American Expansionism has identified the reasons why America had no other choice but to incorporate Philippines as a part of it. This writing has been lifted from the excerpts of an interview with William McKinley soon after Spain had surrendered in the Spanish-American war. McKinley cleverly talks in this interview about how Philippines just came and fell into the laps of America thereby suggesting the helpless stance of America. He talks about how America’s sole intention and purpose had only been to safeguard its own interests as a country. He had to order that the Spanish fleets in Manila be destroyed because if left unattended, they would have crossed the Pacific and wreaked havoc in the American states
But Russia had lost their commander to his flagship blown up by the mine in 1904. Since Japan had won it had shown major world power. Since for Russia, the empire had lost all its prestige’s and the population of Russia had let into an outrage and so the Russian Revolution began in 1905. For Japan, they had destroyed Russia as a competitor in the East for 30 years. Japan then was bought
In 1899, while tensions with China were high, and China finally opening trade back up, after years of not trading. The United States jumped on the chance to keep their trade open, by creating the Open Door Policy. This policy had three main points. One, each great power should keep up free access to any treaty port or any other vested interest within its sphere, this point was simply saying that any great spherical power should keep its trading ports open, this helps keep the trade fair for even the smaller countries who relied on trade with major countries. Two, only the Chinese government should collect taxes on trade, meaning that on imports brought into any port of China or any exports sent out buy China the Chinese government should collect
The Open Door Policy is an intervention. The definition of intervention is involvement by a foreign power in the affairs of another nation, typically to achieve the stronger power's aims. The US intervened China’s foreign affairs by allowing any nations to trade freely with them without their consent to gain more resources from their land ultimately for the greater growth of power of their
With the Soviet Union, China had found an ideological partnership which changed in the following decades into rivalry. The relationship with Taiwan was and still is very complex. And finally, the Sino-American relations, which are best described with the transformation from being enemies and becoming friends. In the following essay, I try to highlight the three main foreign relations of Mao‘s China, firstly with the United States, secondly, with the Soviet Union, and thirdly with