Unequal Partners: Philippine and Thai Relations With the United States, 1965-75

A wise, ironic, and perceptive book, which traces the strategies by which minnows coexist with whales. Thompson concludes, inter alia, that democratic regimes are better at foreign policy than lazy autocratic ones, but not as good as purposeful autocracies. Democracies, further, have one great advantage in international bargaining: since more interest groups have to be satisfied in any deal, the country as a whole gets a bigger quid for its quo.