Abstract:
This thesis emerges in the context of globalizing IR studies, especially in non-Western countries. It seeks to explore Vietnamese perspectives on international relations in the thirty years of the Doi Moi process (between 1986 and 2016). In addition to the historical, logical, interpretive, and comparative approaches, this study uses process tracing as the primary method to explore the emergence and changes in Vietnamese perception of fundamental IR concepts such as the international system, actors, power, national interest, international cooperation and conflict, and integration. It also compares the Vietnamese perspectives with the realist and liberal IR theories, the two most influential IR traditions, to assess whether there is a distinct Vietnamese IR concept. The findings reveal that there is both convergence and divergence between the Vietnamese political and IR community, and the realist and liberal IR advocates in the West on many fundamental IR concepts. The thesis concludes that Vietnam has reached an initial stage of developing its IR thinking, which is fundamentally based on pragmatic approaches. The Vietnamese IR perspective can, to some extent, represent the voice of those nations that aim to both integrate themselves into the world and maintain their national independence and self-control in the post-Soviet international environment. The adoption of a Vietnamese IR concept of “object of cooperation” (doi tac) and “object of struggle” (doi tuong) can help explain the dynamics of post-Cold War international interactions. In reflecting upon the initial efforts of exploring Vietnamese IR viewpoints systematically, this study contributes to international endeavors of promoting non-Western IR studies. The Vietnamese IR perspectives can also serve as an analytical framework for Vietnam’s foreign policy in the Doi Moi era.
