Hard Interests, Soft IllusionsIn Hard Interests, Soft Illusions, Natasha Hamilton Hart explores the belief held by foreign policy elites in much of Southeast AsiaIndonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnamthat the United States is a relatively benign power. She argues that this belief is an important factor underpinning U. S. preeminence in the region, because beliefs inform specific foreign policy decisions and form the basis for broad orientations of