A Partnership for Disorder examines American-Chinese foreign policy planning during World War II for decolonizing the Japanese Empire and controlling Japan after the war. This study unravels some of the complex origins of the postwar upheavals in Asia by demonstrating how the disagreements between the United States and China on many concrete issues prevented their governments from forging an effective partnership.

The disagreements stemmed from the two countries' different geostrategic positions, power status, domestic conditions, and historical experiences in international affairs; the results were divergent policies concerning the disposition of Japan. The two powers' quest for a long-term partnership was further complicated by Moscow's eleventh-hour involvement in the Pacific War.

1. By the war's end, a triangular relationship among Washington, Moscow, and Chongqing surfaced from secret negotiations at Yalta and Moscow. Yet the Yalta-Moscow system in Asia proved too ambiguous and fragile to be useful even for the purpose of defining a new balance of power among the Allies. The conclusion of World War II found the victorious Allies neither in cooperation among themselves nor in position to cope with the turmoil in Asia.