Relics of the Cold War? Perceptions and unintended consequences of alliances

• Main Author: Yeong, An Qi
• Other Authors: Chen Chung-An
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168960
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Considering how alliances have long been seen as playing an important role in ensuring regional stability, this paper investigates the opposite: the relationship between alliances and instability. Specifically, it offers a theoretical framework that attempts to account for regional instability resulting from alliances by introducing mistrust and distrust as the intervening variables. Although similar, mistrust and distrust are two conceptually differentiated words. While mistrust refers to scepticism and suspicion based on intuition, distrust is a deliberate decision to not trust due to past experience. To illustrate the presence of mistrust and distrust, the paper examines China’s reactions to the U.S.’s Northeast Asian alliances with Japan and South Korea. In doing so, the paper elucidates how regional instability is an unintended consequence of alliances because of the presence of mistrust and distrust in international relations.