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Wheeler, Norton. "Invited Influence: American Private Associations in the Modernization of China, 1985-2005," American Studies, University of Kansas, April 2007. Advisor: Norman Yetman
“Invited Influence” is an interdisciplinary study of three American private associations, the evolving roles they have played in U.S.-China relations, and the implications these experiences have for understanding the interplay between official and unofficial diplomacy. The specific case studies are: the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and The 1990 Institute. The first is a two-decade-old transnational joint venture university. The second is a four-decade-old bilateral exchange and public education organization. The third is a largely community-based, largely Chinese American-led institution that formed as a transnational think tank after the Tiananmen Square tragedy of 1989 and subsequently broadened its agenda.
Through these in-depth case studies, the dissertation adds texture to a growing body of scholarship affirming that non-state actors are playing increasingly prominent roles as informal diplomats, complementing formal diplomacy in the transaction of relations between nations. It also intervenes in ongoing controversies over how and under what conditions these private organizations achieve their goals. The central findings is that nongovernmental American involvement in China’s contemporary modernization has been significant, has occurred largely at the invitation of, and has been substantially shaped by official, semi-official, and emerging civil society institutions in China. With respect to international relations theory, these findings expand such existing models as the “boomerang” and the “double-mobilization” theories. With respect to diplomatic historians’ cultural relations theories, they offer an alternative, or complement, to narratives of “cultural imperialism” and “soft power.” The case studies also highlight the important contribution of biculturally competent individuals - especially but not exclusively immigrants (in this case, Chinese Americans) - to informal diplomacy.
In order to develop a comprehensive picture of the three organizations and the broader associational sector to which they and their Chinese partners belong, I have drawn on a variety of scholarly discourses (globalization, transnationalism, cultural relations, modernization, civil society) and have used diverse research methods (documentary research, oral history interviews, survey, and media analysis).
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