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Vietnamese Foreign Policy Since Doi VIETNAMESE FOREIGN POLICY SINCE DOI MOI THE DIALECTIC OF POWER AND IDENTITY NGUYEN NAM DUONG Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, UNSW@ADFA 2010 1 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged’ Signed............................................................. Date................................................................. 2 ABSTRACT This study explains the transition in Vietnamese foreign policy since doi moi as a process of reconstruction in Vietnamese national identity and national interest – the cognitive and motivational dispositions of Vietnamese policy behaviour. Through the employment of congruence and process tracing methods, this study explores the causes of the transitional process, identifies the power and identity dynamics of Vietnam’s policymaking, and examines the relations between these two kinds of influences. It concludes that while Vietnamese foreign policy since doi moi is shaped by an interplay of power and identity factors, the mainstream of this strategic transition is featured by the evolving constituents of Vietnamese national identity. Specifically, Vietnam’s contemporary identity and foreign policy are constituted by Vietnamese ethno-cultural nationalism, renovated socialism and Southeast Asian regionalism, of which Vietnamese ethno-cultural nationalism is paramount and can condition its other identity constituents as well as their respective interests and behavioural expressions. Thus, this study contributes an integrated perspective to the study of Vietnamese foreign policy: one that focuses on the construction of Vietnamese identity and interest by power and identity influences from both the inside and outside of the Vietnamese state. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This PhD thesis is made possible by a research grant (the University College Postgraduate Research Scholarship) sponsored by the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA). I would like to thank UNSW@ADFA and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) for providing me with an opportunity to study in this accredited institution over the past three and a half years. My special thanks go to Professor Carlyle A. Thayer at HASS, UNSW@ADFA for his exemplary expertise and inspiring supervision of my thesis. The field trip, which I carried out in 2008, was funded by the Henry Luce Foundation through the East-West Center in Washington. The grant allowed me to do research at excellent centers such as the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and the East-West Center in Washington and Honolulu. Without this source of financial assistance, the ambitious field trip – an essential component of my research project – might not have been undertaken. I am also intellectually indebted to many respected scholars whom I had a chance to consult with during my stay in Canberra and my field trip. Among them are Muthiah Alagappa, Ramses Amer, Frederick Brown, Frank Cain, James Cotton, Ben Kerkvliet, Khong Yuen Foong, David Koh, Lưu Đoàn Huynh, David Marr, Charles Morrison, Nguyễn Vũ Tùng, Ian Storey, Alexander Vuving, and Brantly Womack. All the shortcomings of this thesis, however, are my own. Canberra, January 2010 4 CONTENTS Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Contents 5 Abbreviations 9 Introduction: Exploring Vietnamese Foreign Policy since Doi Moi 12 The Research Question and Its Rationale 13 Literature Review 16 The Hypotheses and Methods 28 The Central Theses 34 Chapter Structure 36 Part I: (1986-1991) 38 Chapter One: National Interest, National Identity, and Vietnamese Foreign Policy 39 National Interest: The Motivational Disposition of Vietnamese Foreign Policy 40 Material sources of Vietnamese national interest 47 National Identity: The Cognitive Disposition of Vietnamese Foreign Policy 52 Ideational sources of Vietnamese national identity 59 Chapter Two: Doi Moi and the Redefinition of Vietnamese National Interest 67 5 The Process of Vietnamese Interest Redefinition 70 Doi moi and Vietnamese national interest 74 Material Dynamics of Vietnamese Interest Redefinition 83 Internal dynamics 84 External dynamics 88 Chapter Three: Doi Moi and the Reconstruction of Vietnamese National Identity 94 The Process of Vietnamese Identity Reconstruction 95 Doi moi and Vietnamese national identity 101 Ideational Dynamics of Vietnamese Identity Reconstruction 113 Internal dynamics 114 External dynamics 118 Part II: (1991-2006) 127 Chapter Four: Power and Vietnam’s Definition of Strategic Ends 128 Vietnamese Definition of Strategic Goals 129 Vietnamese perception of threats and opportunities 133 Power Dynamics of Vietnamese Strategic Goals 136 Structural constraints and Vietnamese strategic goals 139 Chapter Five: Identity and Vietnam’s Definition of Strategic Ends 143 Identity Foundation of Vietnamese Strategic Goals 144 Ethno-cultural nationalism and Vietnamese goals 144 6 Renovated socialism and Vietnamese goals 148 Southeast Asian regionalism and Vietnamese goals 152 Ideational Dynamics of Vietnamese Strategic Goals 156 Internal dynamics 158 External dynamics 162 Chapter Six: Power and Vietnam’s Selection of Strategic Instruments 169 Vietnam’s Selection of Strategic Instruments 170 Territorial dispute management 173 Counter-peaceful evolution 176 “Hội nhập” 179 The Material Selection of Vietnamese Instruments 182 External balancing 183 Internal balancing 187 Chapter Seven: Identity and Vietnam’s Selection of Strategic Instruments 195 Identity Foundations of Vietnamese Diplomacy 196 Ethno-cultural nationalism and Vietnamese diplomacy 198 Renovated socialism and Vietnamese diplomacy 204 Southeast Asian regionalism and Vietnamese diplomacy 209 The Social Selection of Vietnamese Diplomacy 215 Internal dynamics 216 7 External dynamics 219 Conclusion 227 Power, Identity and Doi Moi in Vietnamese Foreign Policy 227 Beyond 2006? 232 List of Interviews 234 Bibliography 235 Table 1: Perspectives on Vietnamese Foreign Policy 29 Table 2: Doi Moi and the Redefinition of Vietnamese National Interest 83 Table 3: Doi Moi and the Reconstruction of Vietnamese National Identity 112 Table 4: Vietnam’s Defence Budget (IISS) 188 Table 5: Vietnam’s Defence Budget (MOD) 189 Figure 1: The Dialectic of Power and Identity in Vietnamese Policy Behaviour 36 8 ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank ADMM ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting AFTA ASEAN Free Trade Area APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ARF ASEAN Regional Forum ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEM Asia-Europe Meeting CC (CPV) Central Committee CCERC (CPV) Central Committee External Relations Commission CCICC (CPV) Central Committee Ideological and Cultural Commission CIS Commonwealth of Independent States CLMV Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam CMC (CPV) Central Military Committee COMECON Council of Mutual Economic Assistance COC Code of Conduct (in the South China Sea) COMINTERN Communist International CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CPV Communist Party of Vietnam CPVCC CPV Central Committee DAV Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam DIO (Australian) Defence Intelligence Organization DOC Declaration of on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea EAS East Asian Summit ECOSOC (United Nations) Economic and Social Council 9 EU European Union FDI Foreign Direct Investment GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade HDI Human Development Index IAI Initiative for ASEAN Integration IDS Institute of Development Studies IMF International Monetary Fund IIR Institute for International Relations IR International Relations JIM Jakarta Informal Meeting MOD Ministry of Defence MOFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs MOIT Ministry of Industry and Trade MP Member of Parliament NCIEC National Committee for International Economic Cooperation ODA Official Development Assistance PAP People’s Action Party PLA People’s Liberation Army POW/MIA Prisoner of War/Missing in Action PRK People’s Republic of Kampuchea SEAGAMES Southeast Asian Games SEATO Southeast Asian Treaty Organization TAC Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia UMNO United Malays National Organization UN United Nations UNCLOS United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNSC United Nations Security Council 10 US United States USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics VPA Vietnam People’s Army VPAF Vietnam People’s Armed Forces VUFO Vietnam Union of Friendship Organization WB World Bank WTO World Trade Organization ZOPFAN Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality ZOPIGN Zone of Peace, Independence and Genuine Neutrality 11 INTRODUCTION EXPLORING VIETNAMESE FOREIGN POLICY SINCE DOI MOI “Taking an overall view, it is a must to perceive culture as doi moi, [and] doi moi as culture[;] these two are thus one and each one means these two.” Phạm Văn Đồng (1994: 5) “Over the thousands of
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