Goh, Evelyn

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Cambridge, M.Phil., 1997; Nuffield College, University of Oxford, M.A., Ph.D., 2001.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Politics and International Relations, St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, Manor Rd. Bldg., Manor Rd., Oxford OX1 3UQ, England. E-mail—evelyn.goh@st-annes.ox.ac.uk.

CAREER:

St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, university lecturer in international relations, 2006—; previously taught at universities in Singapore and Australia.

WRITINGS:

Singapore Island Map, Jurong Town Corporation (Jurong, Singapore), 1999.

Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974: From "Red Menace" to "Tacit Ally," Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Meeting the China Challenge: The U.S. in Southeast Asian Regional Security Strategies, East-West Center Washington (Washington, DC), 2005.

(Editor, with Amitav Acharya) Reassessing Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific: Competition, Congruence, and Transformation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Developing the Mekong: Regionalism and Regional Security in China-Southeast Asian Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies (London, England), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Evelyn Goh was educated at Nuffield College, at the University of Oxford, where she earned both a master of arts and a doctoral degree. In addition, she holds a master of philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge. Over the course of her career, she has taught at a number of institutions, including universities in Singapore and Australia. Since 2006, Goh has served on the faculty of St. Anne's College at the University of Oxford, where she is a university lecturer in international relations and teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses. Her primary areas of research and academic interest include Asian security, relations between the United States and China, U.S. foreign policy, environmental security, and international relations theory. She is the author of several books, including Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974: From "Red Menace" to "Tacit Ally," Meeting the China Challenge: The U.S. in Southeast Asian Regional Security Strategies, and Developing the Mekong: Regionalism and Regional Security in China-Southeast Asian Relations. She also edited, with Amitav Acharya, Reassessing Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific: Competition, Congruence, and Transformation.

In Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974, Goh addresses how the United States and China established their tentative peaceful relationship in the later third of the twentieth century. It is generally accepted that this relationship was established during the early 1970s, through the joint efforts of U.S. President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security advisor. Goh, however, disagrees with this standard assessment of the situation. She suggests that the relationship between the United States and China actually began to form approximately a decade earlier, when the administration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson laid the foundation to increase communication between the two nations. Goh credits mid-ranking officials under Kennedy and Johnson for taking a fresh look at policy regarding China, and for suggesting to reassess the relationship. She delves deeply into formerly classified government documents that have recently become available for research, which suggested that far more than a new perception of the global balance of power existed behind the decision to move forward with a new attitude toward China. Over the course of the book, Goh addresses the different images of China in U.S. perceptions, including that of a Communist threat, a nation threatened by revolution, a swiftly modernizing entity, and a country rapidly gathering power. Each of these images factored into U.S. foreign policies and gradual movement toward establishing new relations with China. Ian Jackson, a contributor to the Contemporary Review, commented that "Goh's methodological approach to her subject is fascinating and should command the attention of historians and political scientists. Through the lenses of what she terms ‘conceptual history,’ she moves beyond a traditional narrative approach regarding the details and events of the Sino-American relationship to a thorough examination of the impact of ideas on policy outcomes." China Review International contributor Robert Sutter considered Goh's effort to be "an important book for readers seeking a deeper understanding of American foreign policy toward China during a period of dramatic change." Sutter concluded that "the book marks a major advance from the available literature on this important international turning point." Michael H. Hunt, a reviewer for the American Diplomacy Web site, wrote: "It is a tribute to Goh that in this, her first book, she has not only laid out a clear argument but done so in such a thought-provoking way."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Affairs, November 1, 2006, Rod Wye, review of Constructing the U.S. Rapproachement with China, 1961-74: From "Red Menace" to "Tacit Ally," p. 414.

China Review International, September 22, 2005, Robert Sutter, review of Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974, p. 417.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, September 1, 2005, G. Zheng, review of Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974, p. 186.

Contemporary Review, October 1, 2005, Ian Jackson, review of Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974, p. 239.

International Affairs, May 1, 2005, Nicholas Khoo, review of Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974, p. 647.

ONLINE

American Diplomacy Web site,http://www.americandiplomacy.org/ (September 14, 2006), Michael H. Hunt, Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press Web site,http://mitpress.mit.edu/ (August 18, 2008), author profile.

St. Anne's College, University of Oxford Web site,http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/ (August 26, 2008), author faculty profile.

University of Oxford Politics and International Relations Department Web site,http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/ (August 18, 2008), author faculty profile.