CATEGORY

The Dragon Looks South analyzes the role and relative importance of all the components of China's comprehensive strategy for Southeast Asia, including the political, economic and "soft power" dimensions of China's multifaceted relationships both with individual states and the region as a whole. The book also clarifies and prioritizes current American interests in Southeast Asia, an essential first in assessing the implications for the United States of China's new role in Southeast Asia. China has made extraordinarily rapid gains in Southeast Asia since it turned its old confrontational policy on its head in 1997. The Dragon Looks South focuses closely on the past five years and is a comprehensive work that reviews all aspects of China's relations with all Southeast Asian states. Percival also distinguishes between China's goals in mainland and maritime Southeast Asia, deals with all of the major external players in Southeast Asia, not just China and the United States, and contends that various international relations "schools of thought" may or may not be relevant to Chinese-Southeast Asian relationships.