The Agent–Structure Debate and America's Vietnam Options: A Reply to Professor Gavan Duffy

This article responds to Gavan Duffy's critique of Analogies at War in his recent essay on the agent-structure debate in the JJPS (2001, 2: 161–175). I argue that Duffy's use of Analogies at War to pursue his thesis about “giving structure its due” is flawed because he (1) fails to assess...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Japanese journal of political science 2002-05, Vol.3 (1), p.1-23
Main Author: Khong, Yuen Foong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agency
Causality
Decision making
Foreign Policy
International relations
Intervention
Military Intervention
Perception
Personality
Political science
Politics
Social Structure
Strategic planning
Structural analysis
Theoretical Problems
U.S.A
United States of America
Vietnam
Vietnam War
Warfare
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Summary:This article responds to Gavan Duffy's critique of Analogies at War in his recent essay on the agent-structure debate in the JJPS (2001, 2: 161–175). I argue that Duffy's use of Analogies at War to pursue his thesis about “giving structure its due” is flawed because he (1) fails to assess the book in terms of the outcomes it seeks to explain; (2) conflates “structure” with process, perceptual, and personality variables; (3) misinterprets my assumptions while neglecting the findings of recent works that corroborate the findings of Analogies at War; and (4) fails to demonstrate one of his key suggestions, i.e. the importance of showing how agents and structures are mutually constitutive. The article concludes by discussing some pointers raised by the exchange for furthering the agent-structure debate.
ISSN:1468-1099
1474-0060
DOI:10.1017/S1468109902000117