Amputation vs. Plundering: Strategic Choices under Power Parochial Disparity—A Case Study of the Russo-Japanese War
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Zhang, Yi-Fan
Abstract
Based on the structure of Power Asymmetry, this paper is going to re-examine the concept of “Power” and divide it into “Available Capabilities” and the “Comprehensive Capabilities”. According to this classification, this paper further puts forward the concept of “Power Parochial Disparity”, which believes that under the situation of power parochial disparity, big power who owns higher comprehensive capabilities may relatively has less available capabilities, however, a small power who has lower comprehensive capabilities can be in an advantaged position of more available capabilities. In the meantime, this paper puts forward hypothesis about “two-level-impact system”, which believes under long time dimension, comprehensive capabilities determines the overall trend of strategy of actors, and available capabilities can affect actors’ concrete strategy under realistic conditions. In other words, pressure of the structure to actors produced by situation will be reflected on these two levels. When there is power parochial disparity situation, actors’ response patterns will affect by these two levels and possess some kind of “inherent contradiction”. This inherent contradiction attributes special peculiarities to the two behaviors of actors in power parochial disparity. We named the behaviors after “Amputation” and “Plundering”, and further, clarify the inherent logic and basic features of the two and finally construct the “Amputation-Plundering” analytical model. After that, we try to use this model to reinterpret the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, which is a classic case of power parochial disparity. In this case, Russia, the actor with much more comprehensive capabilities, had less available capabilities in East Asia. On the contrary, the other actor, Japan, had less comprehensive capabilities and more available capabilities, due to its geographic advantages. However, Japan realized the basic logic of power parochial disparity and executed its Amputation strategy positively therefore became the winner of the war, and contrarily, Russia finally failed for the reason of its violation of the power parochial disparity.
Subjects
available capabilities
comprehensive capabilities
power parochial disparity
power asymmetry
amputation
plundering
Russo-Japanese War
Type
thesis
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