In
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
, triangular diplomacy is a
foreign policy of the United States
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
, developed during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
(1955–1975) by
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
, as a means to manage relations between the contesting
communist powers, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Connecting heavily with the correlating policy of
linkage
Linkage may refer to:
* ''Linkage'' (album), by J-pop singer Mami Kawada, released in 2010
*Linkage (graph theory), the maximum min-degree of any of its subgraphs
*Linkage (horse), an American Thoroughbred racehorse
* Linkage (hierarchical cluster ...
, the policy was intended to exploit the ongoing rivalry between the two Communist powers (following the
Sino-Soviet split
The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...
(1956–1966)), as a means to strengthen American hegemony and diplomatic interest.
Interrelating primarily with the subsequent development of the
détente
Détente (, French: "relaxation") is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The term, in diplomacy, originates from around 1912, when France and Germany tried unsuccessfully to reduc ...
era (1969–1979) during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, triangular diplomacy was instituted in order to prevent the decline of American authority during the Vietnam War following the perceived inefficiencies of
George Kennan's defensive policy of
containment
Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term ''cordon sanitaire'', which was ...
and
Dwight Eisenhower's offensive policy of
rollback
In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, w ...
. Hence, triangular diplomacy was an instrumental facet in the shifting of Cold War policy toward talks of co-operation and
diplomacy
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
, and thus set a precedent for the eventual relaxation of tensions between the two superpowers through a focus on mutual benefit (as evidenced in the
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds of ta ...
(SALT) and the
Strategic Arms Reduction (START) treaties).
Terminology
In principle, the policy of triangular diplomacy seeks to link the interests of three powerful states in order to retain a balance of power within the international system. Most commonly, this involves an insecure
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
(or states) pursuing strategic alliances or economic deals in an attempt to both weaken the
hegemony
Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over oth ...
of a powerful adversary and strengthen their own position. First developed by US advisor Henry Kissinger during the Vietnam War era, the policy was argued to be most effective when reliant upon ''“the natural incentives and propensities of the players.'”''
Conceived in a period of American political weakness, Kissinger's doctrine argues that foreign policy needed to rely on a combination of
diplomacy
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
and military power in order to bring benefits to all relevant players, and subsequently ensure international stability. This doctrine heavily relates to a neorealist analysis of international politics, professed by scholars such as
Kenneth Waltz
Kenneth Neal Waltz (; June 8, 1924 – May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of ...
. Kissinger's desires to seek a ''“coalition”'' with China in order to stabilise the power of the Soviet Union reflects the
neorealist balance of power theory, as insecure states are seeking to bring an equilibrium to the international order in an attempt to bring peace and benefit the relevant actors.
Vietnam War
Entering into the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
during the height of the Vietnam War, one of Kissinger's primary intentions with his policy was to gain Soviet and Chinese assistance in softening North Vietnamese troops, and withdrawing from the conflict with dignity. The Sino-Soviet split offered a ripe opportunity for Kissinger and Nixon to enact such a policy, intended by offering integration into the international trade system, scientific and technological resources and a stabilization of bilateral relations. The first instance of this
rapprochement
In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word ''rapprocher'' ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations between two countries. This may be done due to a mutual enemy, as was the case with Germ ...
and the beginnings of triangular diplomacy within US policy is reflected in a 14 August 1969 National Security meeting, in which Nixon positioned his intentions to victimise China within the Sino-Soviet split and seek to offer assistance.
The following 1972
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
and
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
summits further exacerbated the existing tensions between China and the Soviet Union, allowing Nixon and Kissinger to gain Soviet co-operation on matters deemed important to US foreign policy. This can be examined in the outcome of the
1972 Spring Offensive, as the United States were able to gain diplomatic co-operation in reaching a peace with
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
ese forces. Many scholars contend that Nixon's rapprochement with China, as part of the triangular diplomacy framework, was an instrumental facet in the dissolution of the Vietnam War. Historian
Raymond Garthoff argues that triangular diplomacy held a significant bearing on the settlement of the Vietnam War, whilst
Jussi Hanhimäki
Jussi M. Hanhimäki (born February 3, 1965 in Espoo) is a Finnish historian, specializing in the history of the Cold War, American foreign policy, transatlantic relations, international organizations and refugees.
Background
Hanhimäki is curr ...
contends that the policy played a critical role in bringing about changes in North Vietnamese negotiation strategy.
However, triangular diplomacy did not ensure immediate stability and peaceful cooperation. The Vietnam War continued in full force for three years after the emergence of the policy, with continued US-Soviet conflict evolving underneath. For Kissinger and Nixon, the policy was secondary to national interests and security concerns, as the nation needed to appear politically powerful against adversaries.
Détente
Following the Vietnam War, Kissinger sought to reshape the US approach to international relations, seeking a balance of power which can produce stability between the three key players in the international system; the Soviet Union, the United States and China, and subsequently reduce military and political tensions. Triangular diplomacy consequently included the aim of achieving this balance of power and pursuing the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, as Nixon and Kissinger saw that correlating the interests of each power was instrumental in stabilizing the international order.
In ''The White House Years'', Kissinger argued that the opening to China and détente with the Soviets were connected policies, intended to exploit the pre-existing tensions between the states in American interest.
Stating that it was better for the United States ''“to be closer to either Moscow or Peking than either was to the other”'', as American bargaining power would strengthen two-fold.
![President Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/President_Richard_Nixon_and_Mao_Zedong.jpg)
Key outcomes of triangular diplomacy during this period include the
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), the signing of the
Shanghai Communiqué
The Joint Communiqué of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, also known as the Shanghai Communiqué (1972), was a diplomatic document issued by the United States of America and the People's Republic of China on Febru ...
and the
Camp David Accords
The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retrea ...
, each of which were achieved as a result of Kissinger and Nixon's policy.
However, depicted as a sign of American political weakness, the policy of détente was ultimately overhauled. American nationalists saw the policy as a way for the Soviet Union to manipulate the US under the pretenses of diplomacy, evidenced by their refusal to ratify the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the gains received from
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
's
Ostpolitik
''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and
Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republ ...
.
In addition, the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1979 solidified the re-invigoration of Cold War hostilities and the conclusive end of the détente period. As a result, Nixon and Kissinger were removed from political power, to be succeeded by the administration of
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
, and triangular diplomacy was overlooked for the remainder of the Cold War.
After the Cold War
Following the Cold War, the premise of triangular diplomacy shifted from Nixon and Kissinger's definition to a “''coordinated action by two states (which, in keeping with the triangle metaphor, we refer to collectively as the base) to change behaviour of another state (the “target”)''". As nuclear capabilities became an established facet within international relations policy, so to did continued attempts by United States administration to enforce triangular diplomacy with China and the United States.
A key example of this dynamic is the
2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship
The Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation Between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation (FCT) is a twenty-year strategic treaty that was signed by the leaders of the two international powers, Jiang Zemin and ...
, signed between
Russian president
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
and
Chinese president,
general secretary of the Communist Party General Secretary or First Secretary is the official title of leaders of most communist parties. When a communist party is the ruling party in a Communist-led one-party state, the General Secretary is typically the country's ''de facto'' leader—th ...
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...
. The signing of this treaty represented a diplomatic effort to strengthen Russian and Chinese influence in dealings with the United States, and a subsequent return to the triangular diplomacy framework. Results of this treaty included; the modernization of Chinese armed forces and stable levels of fuel shipments to aid the construction of the
Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, and the increase of Russian sources of capital following the dissolution of the Soviet state. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' argued that while this manifestation of triangular diplomacy was "a new form…with diminished strategic significance", the treaty forces the US to pay more regard to both nations and act in accordance with their wishes in order to ensure their unipolar political position, following the Cold War.
Indo-Pacific and United States relations
The political interactions between the United States,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and China have come to reflect this new wave of triangular diplomacy. Following the rise of China to parity with the United States, attentions turned to India, as the third largest Asian economy and fourth biggest spender on defence in the
Indo-Pacific region
The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth.
In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...
, in order to connect political motivations regarding trade and naval capabilities. Following US-Indian discussions regarding US withdrawal from
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and fears of an eventuating power vacuum in the area,
U.S. Secretary of Defense
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The se ...
Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is an American Democratic Party politician who has served in several different public office positions, including Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of ...
stated that "New Delhi was a “lynchpin” in a new US military strategy focused on Asia”.
Seeking a policy to expand military presence in the Indo-Pacific, US interests were subsequently met by assurances from the Chinese defense minister,
Liang Guanglie
Liang Guanglie (, also spelled as Liang Kuang-lieh; born December 1940 in Santai, Mianyang, Sichuan) is a retired general and former Minister for National Defense in the People's Republic of China.
Life and career
Liang joined the army in J ...
, of improved relations and co-operation within the new Asian balance of power. However, the growing naval profiles of both China and India within the Pacific and subsequent localisations of military rivalry, position China within capability to establish unipolar control over the Asia-Pacific, thus spurring a coalition between the US and India. Nonetheless, coming with concerns from Indian leaders regarding the inconsistencies of American policy towards China.
Scholar
C. Raja Mohan contends that as a result, these ambiguities manifest in uncertainty surrounding the terms of triangular diplomacy being exercised in this instance, however cementing a certain ''“intersection of their maritime policies with those of the United States” and are “bound to churn the security politics of the Indo-Pacific for decades to come.”''
Ukraine crisis
A contemporary reflection of triangular diplomacy can be examined through political interactions in regards to the
Ukrainian crisis. In particular, the interactions between the United States, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
and the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. In attempts of the EU and US to balance the power of Russia, this policy can be examined through the correlation of the European Union and United States
economic sanctions
Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they may ...
, the outsourcing of crisis resolution to the European Union, Ukraine’s efforts to increase transatlantic diplomacy and Russia’s efforts to undermine it. In addition to marking the rise of the EU as a major international actor in foreign policy, the Ukraine crisis marks a shift in triangular diplomacy away from its neorealist inclination, to more of a
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
position regarding international cooperation, as the US and EU sought to assist the Ukraine in an attempt to ensure peace as opposed to serving national interests.
Trump administration
The foreign policy of the
Trump administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
has found similarities with that of triangular diplomacy; in particular, regarding American involvement in the
Asia-Pacific region in an attempt to balance out the power of China. Washington advisors Alexander Gray and
Peter Navarro
Peter Kent Navarro (born July 15, 1949) is an American political figure who served in the Trump administration as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and the national Defense Production Act policy coordina ...
have aligned their intentions to implement a more muscular foreign policy in the region, in order to manage the growing power of China through improved relations with
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, hence implementing triangular diplomacy principles.
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
writer
Marc Thiessen
Marc Alexander Thiessen (born January 13, 1967) is an American conservative author, political appointee, and weekly columnist for ''The Washington Post''. Thiessen served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush from 2007 to 2009 and Secreta ...
argues that this is to be achieved through
free trade agreement
A free-trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occur ...
and upgrading the state’s political representation, following Trump’s unstable position regarding the
One China policy
The term One China may refer to one of the following:
* The One China principle is the position held by the People's Republic of China (PRC) that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, with the PRC serving as the sole legit ...
.
International relations theory
![BalanceOfPower_(cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/BalanceOfPower_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The triangular diplomacy framework is contingent upon the
realist and
neorealist analysis of international politics, which advocates a zero sum form of geopolitical conflict, through which the overriding paradigms of statism, survival and self help define political interactions. By attempting to connect the interests of competing powers in order to manifest a mutual political benefit, Kissinger's policy reflects the realist
balance of power theory which argues that national and global stability is secured when military capability is distributed correspondingly amongst states, in order to avoid global unipolarity.
As can be examined within the Vietnam War era, in the attempt of one state to ensure their own survival in the global anarchic system through increasing economic and military strength, this in turn fuels the insecurities of less powerful states. As a result, insecure states seek to form a coalition and subsequently balance out the power of their superior, thus bringing security to the international system. Hence, reflecting the formation of a coalition between the United States and China in response to the growing power of the Soviet Union within the Vietnamese sphere, in order to achieve a level of global stability through détente. As per scholar
Raymond Aron
Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron (; 14 March 1905 – 17 October 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist, political scientist, historian and journalist, one of France's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century.
Aron is best known for his 19 ...
, an achievement of this system will consequently manifest peace, as a “more or less lasting suspension of rivalry between political units” will ensue.
However, as is evidenced from the inherent US unipolarity which has marked the 21st century, and failures of triangular diplomacy to substantiate such a peace, scholars
Wohlforth, Little and Kaufman argue that these facets evidence the failures of the balance of power theory to correlate within the contemporary international environment.
[Wohlforth, W., Little, R., & Kaufman, S. (2007). ''Testing Balance-of-Power Theory in World History''. European Journal of International Relations, ''13''(2), 155-185. doi: 10.1177/1354066107076951] Moreover, positioning triangular diplomacy as a point of contention within international relations theory, as whilst its tenets subscribe to realist thought, its developments within the contemporary era have positioned it against a
constructivist or
post-structuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
approach to international politics, advocated by scholars such as
Wendt Wendt is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Albert Wendt (born 1939), Samoan poet in New Zealand
* Alexander Wendt (born 1958), American political scientist
* Amadeus Wendt (1783–1836), German philosopher and music theo ...
.
See also
*
Containment
Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term ''cordon sanitaire'', which was ...
*
Détente
Détente (, French: "relaxation") is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The term, in diplomacy, originates from around 1912, when France and Germany tried unsuccessfully to reduc ...
*
Rollback
In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, w ...
Notes
References
Websites
* "China, Russia to honor commitments on oil pipeline". ''China Daily''. 2003.
* "China terms defence minister's India visit a success." ''The Times of India.'' 2012.
* "India 'lynchpin' for US strategy in Asia: Panetta". ''The Express Tribune.'' 2012.
* "Putin: oil pipeline will serve China first". ''China Daily''. 2005.
* "Triangular Diplomacy". ''The New York Times''. 2001.
* Kuo, Kendrick (2013). "Nixon's Opening to China: The Misleading Apotheosis of Triangular Diplomacy". ''E-International Relations Students''. Retrieved fro
Nixon’s Opening to China: The Misleading Apotheosis of Triangular Diplomacy* Kuo, Raymond (2017). "Can Trumpian Triangular Diplomacy Work?". ''The Diplomat''. Retrieved fro
Can Trumpian Triangular Diplomacy Work?* Lukacsova, V. (2009). Kissinger's Triangular Diplomacy.
* Mohan, C. Raja (2012). "The New Triangular Diplomacy: India, China and America at Sea". ''The Diplomat''.
* Sempa, Francis (2016). "Is Kissinger's Triangular Diplomacy the answer to Sino Russian Rapprochement?". ''The Diplomat''.
* Thiessen, Marc (2016). "Trump's Taiwan call wasn't a blunder. It was brilliant". ''The Washington Post''.
Books
* Aron, R. (1966). ''Peace and War''. New York: Doubleday
*Birchfield, Vicki; Young, Alisdair (2018). ''Triangular diplomacy among the United States, the European Union, and the Russian Federation: Responses to the Crisis in Ukraine''. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG.
*Dunne, T., & Schmidt, B. C. (2014). ''Realism''. In S. Baylis & Owens (Eds.), ''The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Garthoff, Raymond (1994). ''Détente and Confrontation''. Washington: Brookings.
* Kegley, Charles; Wittkopf, Eugene (2005). ''World Politics: Trend and Transformation''. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
* Kissinger, Henry (1979). ''The White House Years''. Sydney: Hodder and Stoughton.
*Mohan, C. Raja (2012). ''Samudra Manthan Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific.'' Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
* Morales, Gilbert (2005). ''Critical Perspectives on the Vietnam War''. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.
* Waltz, Kenneth (2008). ''Realism and International Politics''. New York: Routledge.
*Waltz, K. (1979). ''Theory of International Politics.'' Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Journals
* Hanhimaki, Jussi (2003). "Selling the 'Decent interval': Kissinger, triangular diplomacy, and the end of the Vietnam war, 1971–73". ''Diplomacy and Statecraft''. 14:1, 159–194.
* Keohane, Robert (2012). "Twenty Years of Institutional Liberalism". ''International Relations''. 26(2): 125–138.
*Wohlforth, W., Little, R., & Kaufman, S. (2007). ''Testing Balance-of-Power Theory in World History''. European Journal of International Relations, ''13''(2), 155–185.
Further reading
* Ngoei, W (2017). A wide anticommunist Arc": Britain, ASEAN, and Nixon's triangular diplomacy. ''Diplomatic History'', ''41''(5). Within this work, Cold War historian Ngoei employs his specialised analysis of US-SE Asian foreign relations in order to confirm the successes of triangular diplomacy in cementing US hegemony over Indochina. By challenging the predominately Americentric accounts of Cold War foreign policy, Ngoei examines the methods through which ideological prejudice engendered the success of Kissinger's policies, against the repercussions of this policy under modern American administration.
* Birchfield, V., & Young, A. (2018). ''Triangular Diplomacy among the United States, the European Union, and the Russian Federation Responses to the Crisis in Ukraine''. Cham: Springer International Publishing. By examining the current Ukraine crisis through the prism of triangular diplomacy, Young and Birchfield analyse the developments of the policy during the post-Cold War era, particularly concerning the rise of the EU to international authority. The amalgamation of their methodology and reputability delegates credibility to their account, and positions it as paramount to a study of the modern developments of triangular diplomacy, through their panoramic perspective of transnational relations.
* Doyle, R. (2014). ''The geopolitical power shift in the Indo-Pacific region : America, Australia, China, and triangular diplomacy in the twenty-first century'' . Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. As a trained historian, Doyle analyses the decline in US international authority against the modern developments of triangular diplomacy, as a result of a post-Cold War power shift in the Indo-Pacific geopolitical region. His authoritative methodology manifests a highly credible account on these changes within the nature of triangular diplomacy, and the epochal international policy developing within the Indo-Pacific theatre as a result of the declining authority of the US.
* Hanhimaki, J. (2003). Selling the “Decent interval”: Kissinger, triangular diplomacy, and the end of the Vietnam war, 1971–73. ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'', ''14''(1), 159–194. As a leading historian on Cold War international relations, Hanhimaki's comprehensive account of triangular diplomacy allows for a multifaceted insight into Kissinger's motivations behind the policy. His interdisciplinary methodology, in addition to the credibility gained through publication in the ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' journal, sets Hanhimaki's work as invaluable to a study of triangular diplomacy, through his fresh insights into Kissinger's subsequent provocation of Sino-Soviet competition in Indochina.
* Daum, A., Gardner, L., & Mausbach, W. (2003). ''America, the Vietnam War, and the world : comparative and international perspectives'' . Washington, D.C: German Historical Institute. In this work, renowned theorists; Daum, Gardner and Mausbach analyse the global repercussions of triangular diplomacy during the Vietnam War, with a salient focus on its socio-political, economic, cultural and intellectual consequences. By analysing the policy against subsequent cold war conflicts, this account resides as a staple within a disciplinary analysis of Vietnam war foreign policy, and thus to a study of triangular diplomacy.
{{Foreign relations of the United States, expanded=DPC
United States foreign policy
Cold War
Diplomacy
International relations theory
China–United States relations
Soviet Union–United States relations