Theorising Foreign Policy and IR in Vietnam: A Case for a Non-Western IRT?

Abstract

The article is devoted to revealing some of the key concepts pertaining to International Relations Theories (IRT) suggested by the leading Vietnamese scholars at present. While claiming no comprehensiveness with regard to the coverage, the paper unveils some of the circumstances that served as a background for the evolution of International Relations (IR) as a discipline in Vietnam with a specific focus on the indigenous school(s) of thought. In particular, a Vietnamese conceptualisation of the middle power theory is of interest, being relevant not only in terms of advancing the methodological constructs but also for formulating – even if indirectly – Vietnam’s foreign policy in practice. On the whole, noteworthy is the creative adaptation of Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts to the contemporary intricacies of international politics. Findings show that while some Vietnamese groundwork in IR theories is typical of non-Western scholarship on the whole, it manifests a certain degree of uniqueness in that it relies on a combination of Marxist-Leninist doctrines and Ho Chi Minh’s postulates with both characteristically Asian notions (e.g. “bamboo diplomacy”) and theoretical developments originating in the Global West (such as the concept of a “middle power”).