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| 1 |
ID:
135874
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| Summary/Abstract |
The article looks at structural analogies between the strategic situation in Europe in the summer of 1914 and in East Asia today, with particular emphasis on the probability of the outbreak of a major war. The author examines analogies regarding the nature of the international system, i.e. is the international system characterized by outright anarchy or by a more or less developed and institutionalized understanding among the main actors about the way to preserve peace and to organize economic exchange? The article addresses domestic factors (nationalism, democratic, authoritarian or semi-democratic regimes) and investigates military dynamics against the backdrop of geography and the availability of military equipment and technologies. Possible routes of military escalation are also discussed. Special attention is paid to states that have isolated themselves and that dispose of military means that might promise swift victory. The article comes to the conclusion that there are very few similarities between Europe in 1914 and East Asia today, but that both the high degree of militarization of the Korean peninsula and the evolving military competition between the US and China in the region do imply the possibility of a major armed conflict in a not too distant future
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| 2 |
ID:
135760
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| Summary/Abstract |
In mainstream political science literature, two main theoretical perspectives on the origins of political trust predominate: institutional theory which argues that political trust is generated from democratic institutions and cultural theory which argues that political trust is rooted in historical-cultural factors such as social trust. However, the influence of other social values, such as authoritarian orientations, has received little attention in the extant literature. This article investigates the determinants of political trust in 13 East Asian societies with a special emphasis on authoritarian orientations. The evidence from our empirical study suggests that authoritarian orientations are an independent cultural source of political trust in these societies.
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| 3 |
ID:
136634
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| Summary/Abstract |
Something profound seems to have occurred in Chinese foreign policy since the global FINANCIAL crisis starting in 2007–08. Many have noted an assertive and nationalist Chinese shift, as most dramatically demonstrated in its high-profile global diplomacy to promote its agenda and maritime disputes with its neighbors to defend its “core” interest. But how to characterize the change remains unclear. Even the “assertive” label, an innocuous term in international relations, is contested.1 More common is the pessimism regarding China and East Asia, as expressed by strategist Robert Kaplan when he said, “The 21st century map of the Pacific Basin, clogged as it is with warships, is like a map of conflict-prone Europe from previous centuries.”2 Does this signal the start of a WHOLESALE Chinese reversal of a formerly placid, cooperative strategy? What does the recent turn of events mean for the Sino–U.S. relationship, the East Asian order, and global governance?
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| 4 |
ID:
134759
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| Summary/Abstract |
The rise of China has important implications for the regional order in East Asia. Such implications are not limited to material calculations, such as the size of China’s economy and its military expenditure, but also include an ideational dimension. This article examines the rise of China from the perspective of the recent development of Chinese international relations (IR) theory. Rather than being a purely academic pursuit of theoretical pluralism in the discipline, the development of IR theory in China is also a political practice seeking to address the important problem of China’s rise; that is, the threat perception of a rising power informed by rationalist IR theory. Drawing upon traditional Chinese political thought, Chinese IR scholars have engaged to debate the possibility of a benevolent power within a hierarchical international order, similar to Asia’s historic tribute system. Nevertheless, such a proposal faces limitations, at both the theoretical and practical levels, that cast doubt on the efficacy of (re)creating Asia’s future in the image of its past.
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| 5 |
ID:
136544
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study examines Kim Dae Jung’s 1998–2002 Sunshine Policy toward North Korea and the mutual reassurances between Taiwan and China from 2008 to 2013. Furthermore, it explores factors contributing to the failure of trust-building in the two cases, and the implications for reassurance theory as well as the prospects for inter-Korean and cross-Taiwan Strait relations.
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| 6 |
ID:
136950
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| Summary/Abstract |
The special issue this article opens engages with an apparent conundrum that has often puzzled observers of East Asian politics—why, despite the region's considerable economic integration, multilateral economic governance institutions remain largely underdeveloped. The authors argue that this ‘regionalism problématique’ has led to the neglect of prior and more important questions pertaining to how patterns of economic governance, beyond the national scale, are emerging in East Asia and why. In this special issue, the contributors shift analytic focus onto social and political struggles over the scale and instruments of economic governance in East Asia. The contributions identify and explain the emergence of a wide variety of regional modes of economic governance often neglected by the scholarship or erroneously viewed as stepping stones towards ‘deeper’ multilateralism.
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| 7 |
ID:
136649
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This article addresses the question of why regional cooperation among Afghanistan’s neighbours has been so difficult despite these countries’ common concerns. To answer this question, Afghanistan is conceptualised as placed at the core of overlapping regions: South Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia and, through China’s influence, East Asia. Over the past decade, interactions among different regions ‘through’ Afghanistan have increased, and overlap has intensified. Each of these regions is characterised by more or less intense balance-of-power security dynamics, which have played out in Afghanistan. The fact that the regions that overlap in Afghanistan are predominantly characterised by patterns of conflict helps to explain the difficulties of regional cooperation
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| 8 |
ID:
135294
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| Summary/Abstract |
What drives East Asian regionalism? The rise of China and the perceived decline in the influence of the United States have sparked debates about the future of the regional order, including the yet-unresolved question of whose leadership is likely to be more stable and accepted as legitimate by other regional actors. What is puzzling, however, is that persistent demands for the formation of a coherent and uniquely East Asian regional institution have come not from China or the US, as is the focus of existing studies, but rather Japan and South Korea. In this article, we propose an alternative framework that conceptualises the varieties of East Asian regionalism, emphasising the multiple pivots and variegated levels of politics involved in efforts toward regional cooperation. We find that competing proposals for East Asian regionalism since the 1990s are not determined by structural pressures or the convergence of interests but rather result from domestic legitimacy politics. Japanese and Korean leaders have, at different time periods, proposed their own alternative region-making initiatives appealing to domestically contested views on how best to seek autonomy from the region's Great Powers as a way to enhance their political standing domestically and regionally.
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| 9 |
ID:
134559
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| Summary/Abstract |
China is still overall a global free-rider on a system whose original creators and beneficiaries cannot now afford to maintain without help. The question that cannot now be answered is what price the West and the U.S. in particular will be prepared to pay for help.
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| 10 |
ID:
134864
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| Summary/Abstract |
Using the common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) technique to a set of balanced panel error correction model, we examine the effects of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and the global financial crisis of 2008 on the behavior of saving and investment in East Asian countries. Our results show that saving and investment rates are highly dependent across countries of East Asia. This finding underlines the importance of taking into account cross-sectional dependence when analyzing saving–investment relationship. The results also indicate that the adverse financial shock of 1997 has negatively affected the short run correlation between saving and investment, but has not influenced their long run relationship. Our finding, hence, verifies the prediction of new open economy macroeconomic theories regarding the divergence of short run saving–investment from its long run trend for East Asia. Moreover, we find that the global financial crisis of 2008 has not affected the saving–investment dynamics in this region. It means that the consequences of the Asian and global financial crises for saving–investment dynamics are not the same in East Asia. One might attribute these differences to the origins of these two shocks, i.e., internal versus external to the region. These findings may have some policy implications for those countries that rely heavily on foreign investment and are subject to various internal and external financial shocks.
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| 11 |
ID:
136787
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| Summary/Abstract |
The optimist views South Asia as a half-full glass while the pessimist views it as half-empty. The realist, however, drinks the water in the glass, and wisely quenches his thirst. If we remain stuck in a quagmire of despondency over runaway population growth, grinding poverty of a huge section of the population, and endless squabbles over historic wrongs, the future looks grim. But, if we think of the region as overwhelmingly youthful, charged with vitality and a can-do mentality, well-integrated into the global economy thanks to its large diaspora, brilliantly positioned between the energy rich West Asia and the manufacturing hub of East and South-East Asia, and fully committed to inclusive developmental goals, then South Asia can be the region of the future.
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| 12 |
ID:
135318
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| Summary/Abstract |
Using an unbalanced panel dataset of bilateral trade flows, we study the determinants of two-way trade for Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Korea and the ten ASEAN countries from 1990 to 2009. We find that bilateral trade flow is positively related to the sum of the GDP of trading countries, and similarity in GDP size, but inversely related to relative factor endowment differences, transportation costs and import tariffs. Our empirical results suggest that formulating an East Asian Free Trade Area is important for promoting intraregional trade. Furthermore, there is a need to provide a range of instruments to assist least-developed ASEAN countries in designing and implementing appropriate trade integration policies through the provision of technical and financial assistance as well as analytical support.
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| 13 |
ID:
135349
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| Summary/Abstract |
The China/North Korea border has always been somewhat porous. Since the se-vere famines in the 1990s, the flow of migrants has tended to be towards China with a primarily illegal population of North Koreans seeking work, political freedom or simply essential supplies. Children from North Korea in China have a particularly precarious status. Either they are illegal immigrants themselves or they have mothers who are illegal immigrants. But, when interviewed, they did not repeat the stories of famine, endemic shortage and desperation which are so common in media reportage. Instead they spoke of a desire for a better life, with more opportunity, security and flexibility. It seems that the social, political and economic realities of the DPRK are changing rather faster than the dis-course which surrounds the country.
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| 14 |
ID:
134639
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper explores the motivations behind the outward foreign direct investment (ofdi) decisions in the past decade of an East Asian government-linked corporation (glc), the largest company of its kind in the world in terms of sectoral specialisation. This glc has travelled far from its origins as an agent of European imperialism to its current controversial role spearheading postcolonial extra-territorialisation strategies. I argue that financial predation is the synechdoche for territorialisation in the new imperialism. Consequently emerging economies pre-empt the financial siege by embarking on ofdi strategies themselves to create economic buffer territory. I construct a psychoanalytical framework for examining how anxiety is acted out in the global economy. I apply concepts of the traumatic moment, anxiety and the defence mechanisms of disavowal, splitting, introjection and projection to analyse the glc’s investments as territorial displacements of the libidinal economy.
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| 15 |
ID:
135201
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| Summary/Abstract |
Twenty-five years after the Berlin Wall came down, a sense of missed opportunity hangs over the countries that once lay to its east. Back then, hopes ran high amid the euphoria that greeted the sudden implosion of communism. From Bratislava to Ulaanbaatar, democracy and prosperity seemed to be just around the corner.
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| 16 |
ID:
136735
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) justifies its nuclear weapon arsenal with the concept of deterrence. It means that it will try to miniaturize and modernize its warheads and missiles. This leads to a first-use doctrine of nuclear weapons. Obama's policy of engagement does not offer a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue as yet. In the context of its policy of critical engagement with the DPRK, the European Union has three key interests: regional peace and stability, denuclearization, and human rights. The Conference on Security and Cooperation (CSCE) could be a precedent. The CSCE process was based on three “baskets”: security, economics, and humanitarian. The multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership is a step in this regard. This article looks at three theoretical approaches: realism, liberal institutionalism, and liberal internationalism. It concludes that a political strategy to create a stable North Korean peninsula has to go beyond nuclear deterrence that is based on the realist notion of balance of power.
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| 17 |
ID:
136637
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| Summary/Abstract |
In analyses of China's military modernization, it has become increasingly common to describe China as pursuing a “counter-intervention” strategy in East Asia. Such a strategy aims to push the United States away from China's littoral, forestalling the United States’ ability to intervene in a conflict over Taiwan or in disputes in the East and South China Seas. Moreover, such a military strategy is consistent with a purported broader Chinese goal to displace the United States from its traditional regional role, including Washington's support for global norms such as freedom of navigation in Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and partnerships with long-standing treaty allies.
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| 18 |
ID:
136645
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| Summary/Abstract |
As the center of world economic growth and world politics is shifting to East Asia, the region is undergoing a strategic transformation due to the ongoing power shift. As a result, major regional powers, namely the USA, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and South East Asian states are building up their military potential, in particular naval forces, amid aggravating regional security problems and escalation of maritime disputes. This paper aims to assess regional strategies and military buildup in the Indo-Pacific. With the USA seeking to preserve dominance in the region, China trying to realign the regional power dynamics in its favor, Japan aiming to preserve its place as one of the regional leaders, India and Russia with their goals to become independent powers, and middle and small powers searching for an adequate answer to regional challenges, East Asia and the Indo-Pacific are clearly showing a complex dynamics of competing regional strategies and visions of regional order.
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| 19 |
ID:
134758
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| Summary/Abstract |
China has a complex relationship with its neighbours. With its increasing power, past problems have resurfaced, which will strain relationships between China and its neighbours. As its rise disturbs the balance of power within the region, Japan, South Korea and other regional powers will bear mixed feelings towards its growing regional influence. Despite China’s emphasis on a “peaceful rise”, the international system is always interpreted as a zero-sum game. From this perspective, China’s increasing influence in East Asia comes at the expense of other powers, as this article explains. By exploring both old and new problems between China and its East Asian neighbours, this article analyses the difficulties that China’s rise and other controversial issues in the region present.
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| 20 |
ID:
136951
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the early years of the twenty-first century, Asian regionalism is at a crossroads. While the region is home to a broad array of multilateral organisations, the record of these bodies in fostering effective and legitimate cooperation has been decidedly weak. Drawing on insights from the work of David Mitrany on international cooperation, this article contends that the key problem facing Asian regionalism is a predilection for ‘top-down’ rather than ‘bottom-up’ regionalism strategies. These top-down strategies have involved efforts to find a single institutional design for regional cooperation (similar to the experience of Europe), which has been hindered by geopolitical rivalries and a lack of shared consensus around what constitutes the ‘Asian region’. By considering the contours of interstate competition in Asia, the track record of its existing regionalism efforts and insights from comparative regional studies, it is instead argued that Asia's future is one of regions rather than a single region. As Mitrany suggests, the unique geopolitical context in Asia means that functionally discrete and variegated strategies are likely to provide a more effective basis for regional cooperation. Indeed, trends towards such a functional approach to regionalism are already becoming evident in Asia today.
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