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Reviews 517 Robert S. Ross, editor. China, the United States, and the Soviet Union: Tripolarity and Policy Making in the Cold War. Studies on Contemporary China series. M. E. Sharpe, 1993. x, 204 pp. Hardcover $55.00, isbn 156324 -253-2. Paperback $18.95, iSBN 1-56234-254-0. The struggle for supremacy between the democratic alliance and the communist block after World War II determined the character of international relations and politics during most of the so-called Cold War era in the 1950s and 1960s. The nature of the Cold War, which had been distinguished by the alternation ofperiods ofdétente and bilateral bellicositybetween the United States and the SovietUnion, was drastically altered after U.S. Secretary ofState Henry Kissinger's meeting with Premier Zhou Enlai of China in Beijing in July 1971. During the 1970s and 1980s, roughly from the time of the historic meeting between President Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong in 1972 to the collapse ofEastern European communism in 1989, there was a strategic triangular relationship among the United States, the Soviet Union (the two superpowers), and China "that was qualitatively different and more vital than any other three-way relationship in international politics during the post-World War II era" (p. 4). This excellent book is the end result ofa conference, held in Beijing in June 1990, on this strategic triangular relationship during the latter period ofthe Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s. Twelve scholars, six each from China and the United States, presented drafts of their papers, and seven—four Chinese and three Americans, senior experts in this particular field—served as discussants and advisers at the conference. Only six essays are included in this volume, however, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. The six distinguished authors, one each from Taiwan and Great Britain, and four from the United States, have thoroughly investigated the policies that China, the United States, and the Soviet Union pursued toward each other in the 1970s and 1980s. They have not only systematically examined the evolution ofthe triangular relationship but placed great emphasis on the important role in the policy-making process played by the personalities involved, the respective internal political circumstances in each society, and the nature ofthe ever-changing international political scene. Each ofthe six essays examines the significance ofthis tripolarity from the point ofview ofone ofthe powers involved toward the other two. Michael B. Yahuda, a reader in international relations at the London School of Economics© 1996 fry University ^j Poiitical Science, discusses China's policy toward the United States since 1972. ofHawai'iPresschi $^ ^ deputy director ofthe Institution ofInternational Relations in Taiwan's National Chengchi University, investigates China's Soviet policy. Robert Legvold, professor ofpolitical science at Columbia University, examines the 5i8 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 American factor in Sino-Soviet relations. Herbert J. Ellison, professor of Russian and Eastern European studies at the University ofWashington, who coauthored the introduction to this book, writes on Soviet-Chinese relations in the 1970s and 1980s. Stephen Sestanovich, director of Russian and Eurasian studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C, takes a close look at the impact of China on U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. The editor of this volume, Robert S. Ross, associate professor ofpolitical science at Boston University , deals with the strategic context and the policy-making process in American foreign policy toward Beijing. The consensus fliat emerges from these well-written essays reveals the negotiating dynamics among these three countries. They show "the impact of changing diplomatic relations within the triangle on bilateral negotiating policies" in Chinese -American, American-Soviet, and Soviet-Chinese relations. They also demonstrate "how bilateral negotiating dynamics were altered by each country's changing relationship with the third country, which could exacerbate or mitigate the effects ofenduring power asymmetries" (p. 5). Yahuda and Ross both describe how the American-Chinese rapprochement was affected by changing Chinese-Soviet and American-Soviet relations. Chi explains how the Chinese exploited the benefits of closer Chinese-American ties to strengthen their bargaining power in dealing with the Soviet leaders. Henry Kissinger's claim that America's closer ties...

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