01 The Dualistic Foreign Policy of the US Today:Manifestation,Causes and Trend,by Teng Jianqun,Director and Senior Research Fellow at Department for American Studies,CIIS.Currently,the American foreign policy features a dualistic structure:the Trump administration and the American realpolitik.The Trump administration is trying to engage in a global retrenchment,demanding benefits from its allies and launching trade frictions,aimed at rehabilitating America and ensuring“America First”,while driven by the hegemonic inertia thinking and actual business interests,realpolitik of the US demands to keep its presence in relevant regions and holds onto its geopolitical interests in the world.Even if Trump gets reelected,the game between the government and realpolitik would not stop.However the gap between them may get narrowed.

17 Coercive Diplomacy:the Transformation of US Foreign Strategyin the Era of Strategic Competition,Liu Feitao,Senior Research Fellow at Department for American Studies,CIIS.Marked by US National Security Strategy 2017 and US National Defense Strategy 2018 issued by the Trump administration,the world has entered a new period of strategic competition initiated by the US,with geopolitical contention and major country competition once again becoming the outstanding theme of world politics.The US has not changed its objective of achieving national rejuvenation and preserving its global dominance,but coercive diplomacy has become a new normal of US foreign strategies pursued by the Trump administration,in which diplomatic behavior of the US has changed most obviously since the end of the Cold War.Such a change is reflected in reactivating strategic military deterrence to subdue strategic military rivals,waging a hot war in trade and a cold war in science and technology to suppress strategic economic rivals,forcing allies to undertake more responsibilities by political blackmail,overcoming hostile regional states through maximum pressure,and blocking multilateral diplomacy by withdrawing from international treaties and organizations Although American pursuit of coercive diplomacy is closely related with Trump’s personal ruling style,the root cause lies in the major change of international political power structure and the herald of an era featuring strategic competition,which has promoted the transformation of American external power output.This means that the way of American external power output is fundamentally changed from exporting soft power to exporting hard power,and from depending on institutional superiority to relying on advantages in national strength.The American global“l(fā)eadership”is fast changing into a“coercive force”that is intended to defend American prerogatives.Such a change in the way of American power output may represent a long-term development trend of American diplomacy in the future.

40 American Political Polarization and Extremalization of its ChinaPolicy,by Zhang Wenzong,Associate Research Professor at Institute for American Studies,CICIR,and Deputy Director at the Center for Taiwan Studies,CICIR.Since President Trump came into power,the bipartisan fights has been unprecedentedly fierce,giving rise to a depth of political polarization unseen in the US for decades.As a result,some scholars even called it“super polarization”.Faced with political polarization and deep-seated issues behind it,both President Trump and politicians from the two parties have prioritized getting tough with China,either to consolidate his ruling authority or to address economic issues at home.Some elites in American academic circle have called for a new Cold War with China in order to increase cohesion and consolidate national identity in America.This powerful force,prompted by intensifying structural contradictions between the US and China,has led American policy toward China to extremes.Nevertheless,confronting China cannot mitigate the fierce bipartisan fight in the US,nor can it resolve the issue of inequality in American society,letting alone responding to the challenge long facing American national identity.To get America out of political polarization,either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party has to gain an overwhelming advantage over the other party through realigning voters so as to dominate political agendas for long.In future,the bipartisan fight in America will remain fierce.However,no matter how domestic politics evolves in the US,it will be hard to change the trend of getting tough with China.

56 The Outbreak of COVID-19:Bio-Security and New Future for EastAsia Cooperation,by Zhu Feng,Executive Director at Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies,Nanjing University and President and Doctoral Supervisor at Institute of International Relations,Nanjing University; and Wu Qiong,Assistant Research Fellow at Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies.Currently,the bio-security situation of the world is getting austere,whose major global consequences include endangering people’s life,health and their social life; damaging regional and global economy seriously; and affecting regime stability.Hereinto,COVID-19,featuring rapid and wide spreading as well as high infectivity and mortality,has wrecked great havoc on all countries of the world.This is bound to pose a new challenge to the prosperity and stability of East Asia,manifesting itself as:first,seriously affecting life security of peoples from China,Japan and the ROK; second,impacting East Asian and global economy on multiple fronts; third,attacking the legitimacy of the Chinese government from hostile forces.As it is seen,biosecurity is getting more important in regional economic development and interdependency among nations in the region.For this,two sets of relations should be well managed:relations between bio-security and national interests; and relations between bio-security and national security.China,Japan and the ROK may advance medical cooperation among them by taking regional hygienic-security as an entry point or a strategic grip,to eliminate suspicion and distrust on the part of Japan and the ROK over China’s development and boost trilateral strategic trust,after which to bring their cooperation gradually into“highlysensitive areas”.

74 The Fight by Vietnam against COVID-19 Epidemic and China-Vietnam Relationship,by Yu Xiangdong,Director of Institute for Vietnamese Studies,Zhengzhou University,as well as Vice President of Huanghe Science & Technology College (HSTC) and Dean,Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at School of Marxism of HSTC and Dr.Liang Maohua,Lecturer at School of Southeast Asian Studies,Guangxi University for Nationalities.From January to the end of March in 2020,the fight by Vietnam against the COVID-19 epidemic may be divided into two phases:from January to the beginning of March in 2019,the infected cases were very limited,with the 16 infected cases all cured,thus achieving good control effect; from March 6 to March 31,the infected cases increased drastically,thus making the situation of prevention and control become severe.From April on,Vietnam has entered the third phase,with the measure of“social isolation”taken nationwide.While doing its best to control the domestic epidemic situation,Vietnam has been actively engaging in international cooperation against the epidemic.Based on a comprehensive analysis of Vietnam’s historical experiences,its political system,its national character and its comprehensive national strength,we may predict that the epidemic in Vietnam may not run out of control.The epidemic is likely to exert certain impacts on the China-Vietnam community with a shared future,the construction of the Belt and Road,the synergy of development strategies for the building of the“two corridors and one circle”,cooperation in epidemic prevention and control,the traditional good-neighborly and friendly relations,and diplomatic cooperation.

88 An Initial Analysis of Mediation Diplomacy by the AbeAdministration between the US and Iran,by Han Chunyang,Graduate Student at Information Engineering University,Strategic Support Force; and Xu Wansheng,Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Information Engineering University,Strategic Support Force.Since US’withdrawal from the“Iranian Nuclear Agreement”in May of 2018,relations between the US and Iran have been tense,thus leading to great regional instability in the Middle East.Based on strategic considerations of insuring Japan’s energy security and economic interests,raising Japan’s international prestige,and promoting constitution amendment at home,the Abe administration has decided to engage in mediating diplomacy between the US and Iran.The need for a mediator by the US and Iran between them,Iran’s trust in Japan,and the weakened role of European states as a mediator have provided the Abe administration with feasible conditions to conduct mediating diplomacy.The approach taken by the Abe administration for its mediating diplomacy mainly includes:mutual visits by the heads of state of Japan and Iran,high-level dialogs,and close communication with the US as well as lobbying the Middle East countries.However,the Abe administration’s efforts failed to promote a substantial improvement of the US-Iran relations due to the restrictions of such factors as Japan’s own limitations,complexity of contradictions between the US and Iran,superficiality of the mediation tactics,and uncertainty of the mediation process.

107 A Probe into America’s“Islamophobia”,by Dr.Jia Chunyang,Associate Research Professor at Institute for American Studies,CICIR.The series of anti-Muslim rhetoric of President Trump and his team has reflected the deep-seated“Islamophobia”in American society,which is mainly manifested as:first,openly deny and be hostile to Islam,and link it with extremism; second,publicly discriminate against,isolate and even attack Muslims; third,worry about and reject the spread of Islamic culture and the demographic growth of Muslims; and fourth,discriminate against and attack Islamic countries and Muslim groups diplomatically.“Islamophobia”is not a new phenomenon in America,whose emergence and popularity owe to complex reasons,including historical,institutional and direct ones.The spread of“Islamophobia”has exerted negative impacts on domestic unity,social stability and foreign policy making of the US.Therefore,other countries of the world should learn a lesson from it,and adopt multiple measures simultaneously to prevent and neutralize“Islamophobia”.