The Achievement of National Interests

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ACHIEVEMENT OF NATIONAL INTERESTS

States use a vast range of instruments to achieve their national interests including; military, political and diplomatic forms of power. To understand why states use these instruments to influence their neighbours and the global community at large, it is important to note the differences between these mechanisms and the way in which each one brings about change in the international arena.

Military force has frequently been used as a deterrent and threat to fellow states. Use of military force may involve the publication of documents which outline future military hardware purchases, the public testing of military technologies or an increase in military spending as a percentage of GDP. In the Asia-Pacific region we have seen many such examples. Recently in early 2009, Pyongyang was condemned by the wider international community for launching provocative ballistic missile tests into the Sea of Japan. This demonstration of new military hardware and capabilities was the instrument used by North Korea to deliver a message to the Japanese government and people that Pyongyang was a growing military force in the region. Here, North Korea aimed to pursue their national interest of military intimidation - an interest that has also led to experimental nuclear detonations in 2008. Testing new military hardware is not limited to North Korea. The tension between mainland China and the separatist state of Taiwan has shown the effectiveness flexing ‘military muscle’. 2004 saw China initiate its largest scale military exercise with a foreign nation which was designed to coincide with the Taiwanese referendum of independence. The exercise was a huge demonstration to the voting public of Taiwan aimed to influence their vote; swinging from the pro-independence candidate of the DPP to a candidate running on pro-unification, and to also spook Taiwanese citizen in voting against the referendum. While in this case, the use of military power was not sufficient enough for Taiwan to elect a pro-unification President, it did manage to maintain the Taiwanese territory as part of mainland China and silence the voice of independence once more.

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Political clout is often used along side diplomatic or military instruments in order to achieve a state’s national interests. Political instruments take a number of forms; developing new policy, influencing international organisations and gathering support from the global community to aid the particular state’s cause. In January 2008 the Chinese government passed new policy to allow greater accessibility for foreign direct investment (FDI). An softened approach for FDI in China enabled even more multinational companies (most based in the United States) to build offices and production facilities in China which not only increased the companies’ profit through lower labour ...

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