Professional Affiliation

Lecturer, Wuhan University Institute for International Studies

Expert Bio

Specialized in U.S. diplomatic history, the author got his Ph. D. in history at History School of Wuhan University in September 2010. After graduation, he has been worked as a lecturer for Wuhan University Institute for International Studies, conducting researches and having published several articles about U.S. Far Eastern policy during and immediately after the Second World War, the history of US naval and maritime strategy in and after the Cold War. He is now interested at US-USSR prevention of incidents at sea agreement in 1972 particularly and their other maritime relations and interactions in general.

Wilson Center Project

"Re-evaluation of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Agreement on Prevention of Incidents on and over the High Seas in 1972: A Chinese Perspective"

Project Summary

The agreement between U.S. and U.S.S.R. on prevention of incidents at sea in 1972 (INCSEA) has generally been regarded as a success and as a good model for maritime confidence and security building measures. Most of scholars gave a very high appraisal to the agreement and convincingly attributed its success to the factors such as common security interest, simplicity, professionalism, good preparation, lack of publicity, verification and accountability, etc. However, the historiography or historical narrative above, through the lens of idealism or constructivism, may have stressed too much on the cooperative aspect of the agreement and its accomplishment and thus simplified the problem. Therefore, the author intends to review and reevaluate the 1972 INCSEA negotiation process and its outcome by using realistic approach, so as to get a more balanced idea on how INCSEA works and where is the limit.