China and Vietnam: The Politics of Asymmetry [Hardcover]

Brantly Womack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2006

In their three thousand years of interaction, China and Vietnam have been through a full range of relationships. Throughout all these fluctuations the one constant has been that China is always the larger power, and Vietnam the smaller. Yet China has rarely been able to dominate Vietnam, and the relationship is shaped by its asymmetry. The Sino-Vietnamese relationship provides the perfect ground for developing and exploring the effects of asymmetry on international relations. Womack develops his theory in conjunction with an original analysis of the interaction between China and Vietnam from the Bronze Age to the present.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Some countries are obviously stronger than others. Yet modern theories of international politics, deriving from Westphalian normative assumptions of sovereign equality, tend to overlook this fact, treating asymmetry as a form of abnormal, remediable imbalance. Brantly Womack, however, based on an up-to-date yet comprehensive overview of Sino-Vietnamese relations, develops a theory of international asymmetry with implications far transcending this case. His book will thus interest not only East Asian area specialists but all students of contemporary international affairs."
-Lowell Dittmer, University of California, Berkeley

"The book sets out to make a contribution to International Relations theory by examining examples of asymmetry in the power relations between China and Vietnam. He shows that, with a different starting-point, asymmetry could lead to a stability and normalcy that goes against current IR theories about asymmetric relationships between nations. The book offers a valuable correction to some current notions about asymmetry, in particular the idea that it makes for instability and could not be the basis for normalcy. By his close analysis of a two thousand year relationship between China and Vietnam, the author not only shows that the relationship was relatively stable in the past but also explains why it seems to have found a particular normalcy of its own today. There is no comparable work at this level of sophistication. It will be vital reading for all political scientists, especially scholars of international relations, and most historians of Asia."
-Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore

"Relations between unequals define contemporary international politics, many of these relationships endure while Great Powers rise and fall, and mismanaged asymmetry has painful consequences for the strong as well as the weak. Largely ignored in the theoretical literature, relations between states of greatly different capabilities receive the attention it deserves in China and Vietnam: The Politics of Asymmetry. Brilliantly conceived and elegantly executed, this important amplification of structural realism is a fascinating dissection of a long and turbulent relationship as well."
-William S. Turley, Southern Illinois University

"Brantly Womack's book on relationship between China and Vietnam is an interesting analysis of this long and complex relationship. The study is innovative as it attempts to analyze the long history of relations between the two countries through the use of asymmetry as an analytical tool."
-Ramses Amer

"Womack's volume provides a major contribution for readers seeking an up-to-date, clearly presented, and stimulating assessment on how IR theory informs an understanding of recent Chinese foreign relations and vice versa."
-Robert Sutter, Georgetown University, Perspectives on Politics

Book Description

In their three thousand years of interaction, China and Vietnam have been through a full range of relationships. Twenty-five years ago they were one another's worst enemies; fifty years ago they were the closest of comrades. Five hundred years ago they each saw themselves as Confucian empires; fifteen hundred years ago Vietnam was a part of China. Throughout all these fluctuations the one constant has been that China is always the larger power, and Vietnam the smaller. China has rarely been able to dominate Vietnam, and yet the relationship is shaped by its asymmetry.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521853206
• ISBN-13: 978-0521853200
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,854,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening, May 14, 2009

By 

C. P. Barker (Evanston IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: China and Vietnam: The Politics of Asymmetry (Paperback)

This book is astonishing in it's scholarship and depth. It's not the sort of thing you take to bed for a light read after a hard day. The information is densely packed and most pages contained at least a few spots where I had to stop and ponder the implications of what I'd just read. Like poetry, there's hardly a word that could be left out. I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone, but for those interested in either or both countries, Womack's brilliant and lucid description of the very human factors propelling international relations, the motives, fears and misunderstandings behind the headlines, will cause you to see China and Vietnam in a richer and more vital way.

2.0 out of 5 stars Mostly a restatement of the obvious, April 30, 2009

By 

Enjolras (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: China and Vietnam: The Politics of Asymmetry (Paperback)

This book purports to propose a new theory for understanding international relations between asymmetrical powers, but ends up being a restatement of China-Vietnam relations without much added-value. It should be obvious to international relations students that weaker powers have less capacity to influence neighbors, but also that stronger powers face limits on their capacity and desire to influence weaker neighbors. There frankly aren't too many examples in modern IR of larger states completely voiding the sovereignty of smaller ones (even invasions such as the U.S. invasion of Iraq tend to restore full sovereignty in the end). It might have been helpful for Wormack to spend more time discussing the alternative to normalcy.

It is also not clear to me that these two countries, with their linked histories and recent wars, are the best two from which to develop a general theory of asymmetry. It might have made more sense to choose a more "typical" asymmetrical relationship (such as India and Nepal perhaps). The introduction spends more time on the need to simplify the history of the China-Vietnam relationship than it does to justify why that is the most appropriate relationship to analyze.

If you want a history of China-Vietnam relations, this book might be useful. I don't think it really explicates anything insightful on asymmetrical international relationships.