Parliamentary diplomacy has provided a crucial, promising outlet in Taiwan’s challenging pursuit of its own interests in the international arena. This book assesses both the potentials and the constraints of parliamentary diplomacy for Taiwan. Through a comparative perspective, and using evidence from the relations of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan with the US Congress and the European Parliament, the authors investigate the implementation of parliamentary diplomacy in Taiwan and its impact in Taiwan’s foreign policy. In their analysis, the authors draw vital lessons that will have important implications for other entities which have similar challenges and aspirations.

Through a comparative perspective, and using evidence from the relations of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan with the US Congress and the European Parliament, this book assesses both the potentials and the constraints of parliamentary diplomacy for Taiwan.

This book examines the most important issues determining the international status of Taiwan today: its international legal status, the viability of its flexible democracy, its efforts to gain participation or membership in international organizations, most notably the United Nations, and its future relations with mainland China, ranging from reunification to declared independence. Issues of American and European foreign policy and of domestic Chinese and Taiwanese politics are also addressed where relevant. This book is unique in that it looks at the question of Taiwan from the perspective of both international law and politics as it confronts the imperatives of law and the limitations of real world politics. As a result it offers insights and strategies that are both sensible and feasible. This book is aimed at scholars and practitioners of international law and international relations alike.

I argue that the hybrid presidential system entails advantages that have been overlooked by the current literature. Although I do not campaign for any ideally "best" institutional models for other new democracies to emulate, a shift of mind that escapes the constraints of contemporary conventional wisdom would help reorient theoretical debate over this important issue. This realistic account of institutional choices that emphasizes politics, paradoxes, coincidences, and structurally constrained or induced choices, adds complexity to both rational choice theorizing and institutional analysis.

This edited volume investigates and evaluates the context, causes, and consequences of various essential issues in Taiwanese domestic politics and external relations before and after the regime change in 2016. It offers theoretical interpretation and temporal delineation of recent electoral shifts, party realignment, identity reformulation, and subsequent foreign policy adaptation in the 2010s. Contributors address these issues in three sections—“Democracy and New Political Landscape,” “The China Factor and Cross-Strait Dilemma,” and “Taiwan’s International Way-out”—to advance conclusions about Taiwan’s political transformation from both comparative and international perspectives.

This book shows that Taiwan, unlike other countries, avoided serious economic disruption and social conflict, and arrived at its goal of multi-party competition with little blood shed. Nonetheless, this survey reveals that for those who imagine democracy to be the panacea for every social, economic and political ill, Taiwan's continuing struggles against corruption, isolation and division offer a cautionary lesson. This book is an ideal, one-stop resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of political science, particuarly those interested in the international politics of China, and the Asia-Pacific.

"Political Warfare provides a well-researched and wide-ranging overview of the nature of the People's Republic of China (PRC) threat and the political warfare strategies, doctrines, and operational practices used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The author offers detailed and illuminating case studies of PRC political warfare operations designed to undermine Thailand, a U.S. treaty ally, and Taiwan, a close friend"--

After 9/11, which triggered a global debate on public diplomacy, 'PD' has become an issue in most countries. This book joins the debate. Experts from different countries and from a variety of fields analyze the theory and practice of public diplomacy. They also evaluate how public diplomacy can be successfully used to support foreign policy.

This groundbreaking study maps out and analyzes the development ofa global intergovernmental (IGO) institutional architecture in thepost World War II era. Systematically traces similarities and differences between theinstitutional architecture of the Cold War and post-Cold Wareras Examines the range of reasons why states join IGOs, identifiespatterns of participation within these organizations, and examinesthe effects of membership on states Considers the impact of the EU on other regional organizationsand developments outside Europe Provides a strong contribution to the study of internationalorganization and IGO development combining both quantitative andqualitative methodologies

Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.