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| 1 |
ID:
118941
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
How are regional organizations responding to the emergence of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges? Are they engaging in more cooperative efforts to meet new threats? Or, on the contrary, do they react in different manners according to their distinctive values, principles and internal structures? This article attempts to investigate how the threats posed by NTS are compelling different regional organizations to reconsider their security thinking and to find new innovative ways of cooperation. This is done by comparing two diverse regional organizations, the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose models of security cooperation have significantly varied reflecting the preference for different security approaches. The EU's security system has been more formalized and institutionalized; conversely, the "ASEAN way" has traditionally been rooted in the principles of informality and consensus. It is argued, however, that the emergence of NTS threats is acting as a catalyst behind a normative and operational shift of the modus operandi of both organizations. In so doing, this empirical analysis will try to shed light on the effects of exogenous factors on the emergence of patterns of convergence within the security sphere of distinctive regional processes.
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| 2 |
ID:
118945
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Despite the fact that Japan is an earthquake-prone country and Japanese people are known to be highly risk averse, less than half of Japanese households are insured against earthquake risk. Based on a survey among experts in the field, the article gives an overview of earthquake insurance schemes and evaluates possible reasons for the relatively low level of insurance and ways for improvement. Experts agree that more insurance is desirable, but they share a less clear opinion about the causes and possible remedies. More research is warranted.
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| 3 |
ID:
118942
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
It is widely known that Chinese transition to market economy was influenced by the newly industrialized Asian countries-Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong-but it is not as much evident that Chinese reform was also influenced by the economic reforms of Hungary. Hungary started market-oriented reforms in the late 1960s by introducing market-orientated measures in agriculture, in manufacturing, in retail trade, and in finances, which made Hungarian economy more flexible and efficient than other European socialist countries. It could be shown that the first market-oriented reform measures applied in China during the 1980s and 1990s have large similarities to the Hungarian reform introduced earlier. In that respect, we can say that Chinese economic reform has adapted lots of elements of the early Hungarian economic reform. At the same time, Hungarian reforms have died away, but after the "lost decade of the 1980s," there was an extremely rapid transition to market economy, which-in spite of the seemingly successful beginning-could not contribute to a long-term and healthy economic development. Meanwhile in China, economic reform was rather successful, resulting in an unprecedented economic development at the end of the twentieth century. Authors of the present article analyse similarities of the Hungarian and Chinese reforms and try to explain the causes of the Hungarian failure and the Chinese success. "Let China Sleep, for when the Dragon awakes, she will shake the world." The saying is attributed to Napoleon and he seems to have been right. Now that China has reversed the process of globalization and has become the winner, we should resignedly accept that China is wide awake. The country's economy has followed a rapid growth path thus China's economic dominance is felt in the entire Far East; moreover, the country with the highest population in the world the country is taking steps to emerge as a world power. The dragon is awake, and she is not going to take a great leap forward but instead it is now on the long march. In lieu of her specific tools, China is about to win: she is already one of the winners, if not the only winner of globalization.
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| 4 |
ID:
118940
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Taiwan's efforts to take part in international organisations (IOs) have received little backing from the international community owing to Taiwan's contested sovereignty. This article investigates under what circumstances and how the European Union (EU) supported Taiwan's participation in IOs and agreements by examining the role of the EU in three success stories: the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The analysis of six factors that shaped the EU's approach shows that a strong EU interest in Taiwan's IO participation was a precondition for its support and that once this precondition was met, applicable membership/participation criteria and opportunities for circumventing or neutralising China's opposition then gained in importance. A supportive United States (US) stance could function as a trigger for EU support. Two counterintuitive findings are that the radicalisation of Taiwan's own strategy fostered increased EU activity in brokering compromises between Taiwan and China and that the EU's decision-making mechanisms did not play a decisive role in the formulation of its support policies.
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| 5 |
ID:
118943
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Fukushima nuclear disaster highlighted the relevance of effective risk communication strategies for nuclear accidents. Poor risk communication was evidenced during the crisis and its aftermath. The government's mishandling of radiation issues generated concern in international nuclear agencies as well as widespread anxiety among Japanese citizens. Based on anthropological research, I will argue that among the negative consequences of the government's inability to deal with public fears are the citizens' uncertainty and ongoing distrust toward the government, the safety regulators, and the nuclear industry. I will also suggest that such harmful effects can be mitigated by enhancing transparency of the decision-making process and by implementing participative programs where policy makers, stakeholders, and representatives of the local communities can jointly discuss energy production schemes.
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| 6 |
ID:
118944
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Fukushima catastrophe is a turning point in the conception, role and management of technology in industrial societies. As did Hiroshima (on another dimension) after 1945, the Fukushima nuclear accident questions and transforms established conceptions and values concerning the relations between technology, politics, industry, society and the environment. It has become impossible to think after Fukushima as we did before. This catastrophe initiates a major epistemic and conceptual shift with long-term consequences. This paper focuses on a powerful conceptual complex associating the notions of risk, trust and knowledge society. This complex associates discourses, theories and policies. The objective is to criticize this conceptual complex in order to explore how to rethink, after Fukushima, the relations between technology, politics, industry and society.
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