Strategic Uses of Economic Interdependence

Engagement Policies on the Korean Peninsula and Across the Taiwan Strait

Bibliographic Data

ID4786019
AuthorsMiles Kahler (0000-0002-0050-8790, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego,, corresponding author), Scott L Kastner (Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland,, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume43
Issue5
Pages523-541
Publication date2006-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343306066778
OpenAlexW2147846104
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited28

While the determinants and effectiveness of economic sanctions have been the subject of a substantial and growing literature in international relations, much less attention has been given to economic engagement strategies, where a country deliberately expands economic ties with an adversary to change the target's behavior. This article develops a theoretical framework that distinguishes between three types of engagement strategies: conditional policies that directly link economic ties to changed behavior in the target state; unconditional policies where economic interdependence is meant to act as a constraint on the behavior of the target state; and unconditional policies where economic interdependence is meant to effect a transformation in the foreign policy goals of the target state. The article presents several hypotheses concerning the conditions facilitating or hindering the successful implementation of these different strategies, and then examines engagement policies adopted by three East Asian states: South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China. The cases offer preliminary confirmation of at least three of the hypotheses: conditional strategies are less likely to succeed when the initiating state is a democracy; transformative strategies are more likely to succeed when the target state is a democracy; and transformative strategies are more likely to succeed when a broad consensus exists in the initiating state

China · Constraint (computer-aided design) · Democracy · Development economics · Economic interdependence · Economic sanctions · Economic system · Economics · Foreign policy · Mainland China · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sanctions · Sociology · State (computer science) · Transformative learning · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law

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