Improbable Diplomats

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-108-83743-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 232 mm, Gewicht: 706 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in US Foreign Relations

In 1971, Americans made two historic visits to China that would transform relations between the two countries. One was by US official Henry Kissinger; the other, earlier, visit was by the US table tennis team. Historians have mulled over the transcripts of Kissinger's negotiations with Chinese leaders. However, they have overlooked how, alongside these diplomatic talks, a rich program of travel and exchange had begun with ping-pong diplomacy. Improbable Diplomats reveals how a diverse cast of Chinese and Americans – athletes and physicists, performing artists and seismologists – played a critical, but to date overlooked, role in remaking US-China relations. Based on new sources from more than a dozen archives in China and the United States, Pete Millwood argues that the significance of cultural and scientific exchanges went beyond reacquainting the Chinese and American people after two decades of minimal contact; exchanges also powerfully influenced Sino-American diplomatic relations and helped transform post-Mao China.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Millwood, Pete

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Prologue: Chinese and US Cold War-Era Exchange Diplomacy before the Nixon Era; 1. By Popular Demand; 2. Ping-Pong Diplomacy's Return Leg and After; 3. New Liaisons; 4. Familiarity Breeds Contempt; 5. Asking for More in Exchange; 6. Political Science; Epilogue: The New Normal; Conclusion: Ties That Bind?; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Millwood, Pete
Pete Millwood is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at The University of Hong Kong. His writing has appeared in History Today and The Washington Post. This is his first book.