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791. President Bush's Muddled Policy on Taiwan

Author:
Ted Galen Carpenter
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The Bush administration has gone from one extreme to the other with regard to U.S. policy on Taiwan. During the early months of his administration, the president gave a seemingly unconditional pledge to defend Taiwan from attack by mainland China—going significantly further than his predecessors had. He followed that assurance by approving the largest arms sales package to Taiwan in nearly a decade. In marked contrast to the Clinton years, high-profile visits by Taiwanese leaders to the United States have been encouraged, despite Beijing's protests.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

792. Unsheathing the Samurai Sword: Japan's Changing Security Policy

Author:
Alan Dupont
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
This Lowy Institute Paper sheds analytical light on Japan's changing security policy and seeks answers to several important questions that are of major consequence for Australia and the wider region. What are Japan's strategic aspirations and what does Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi really mean when he talks about Japan becoming a 'normal country'? How signifi cant are the mooted revisions to the peace constitution and how different will the Japanese Self Defense Force (SDF) be in capability and structure a decade hence? As domestic anxieties increase will Japan move closer to the US or seek greater autonomy within the framework of the US alliance? Is it conceivable that the alliance itself could fracture or dissolve entirely? Will cooperation with the US on missile defence weaken the prohibition on collective self defence and under what circumstances might Japan acquire nuclear weapons?
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Japan, Israel, Asia, and Australia

793. European Homeland Security Post-March 11th and Transatlantic Relations

Author:
Didier Bigo, Jeremy Shapiro, and Andrei Fedorov
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
In the oral presentation of their papers, Didier Bigo, Jeremy Shapiro and Andrei Fedorov generally highlighted their respective region's specificities rather than dwelling on the elements of commonality. Although this was in part a consequence of the European Security Forum's modus operandi – with its differentiated European, American and Russian perspectives, rarely in our meetings has the contrast been so clearly highlighted.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

794. CERI: Russian Foreign Policy Discourse during the Kosovo Crisis: Internal Struggles and the Political Imaginaire

Author:
Guillaume Colin
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
The Kosovo crisis gave rise to a domestic political crisis in Russia. The NATO bombings called into question the efficiency of Russian foreign policy, which was against them, challenging the worldview that the government conveyed, thereby reinforcing the communist anti-establishment vision. The present article, by analysing the press conferences given by both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Communist Party, argues that each of the two narratives aimed to construct and impose (or defend) its own worldview and dividing principles of the world. In both narratives, this struggle was backed up using very strong political identity myths—namely Russia's relation to the West and the memory of the Second World War—that are referred to in opposite ways. The Kosovo example allows us to highlight the stakes and themes that work their way into Russian foreign policy discourse and contribute to exploiting foreign policy issues in Russian domestic political debate, and also cast light on the distorting effects caused by this instrumentalization.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and NATO
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Kosovo

795. The Logic of Piloting and Trans-Border Regionalism: The Project-Oriented Approach in EU-Russian Cooperation

Author:
Andrey Makarychev and Sergei Prozorov
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
This paper addresses the impact of innovative developments in Russian policy-making discourse during the Putin presidency on the transformation of conflict issues in EU-Russian relations. The increasing recourse of Russian policy-makers in the border regions to the so-called 'projectoriented approach', which has an affinity to the modality of policy-making espoused by the EU programmes in Russia, has important consequences for conflictual dispositions in EU-Russian trans-border relations.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Development
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

796. Russia and Europe: A Finnish View

Author:
Henrikki Heikka
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
Abstract:
In recent months, several prominent Finnish politicians have criticized the Finnish government for lack of vision in its foreign policy. Liisa Jaakonsaari, Chairman of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and a prominent social democrat), has argued that the government “lacks one thing, and with it, everything: a vision”. Member of the European Parliament Alexander Stubb (the Conservative party's vote puller in the last EP elections) has publicly called contemporary Finnish foreign policy as “pitiful tinkering” (säälittävää näpertelyä). Editorial writers have begun to recycle the old the term “driwftwood” (ajopuu), a term originally coined to describe Finland's flip-flopping during World War II, in their attempts to find an appropriate label for the present government's foreign policy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Democratization, Diplomacy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Finland, and Asia

797. Foreign Policy of Islamic Republic of Iran towards Central Asia and Azerbaijan

Author:
Atay Akdevelioglu
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
While Iran did not have a clearly deliniated policy towards Central Aisa (and Azerbaijan) during the Soviet period and conducted its relations through Moscow, it tried to develop constructive engagement with the regional states since the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, Iran clearly came to accept the dominant postion of Russia in the region. Although it avoided involvement in internal affairs of the regional countries, Iran's political relations with them have not develop into a satisfactory level. In this, American discouragement of the regional countries to enter close relations with Iran, their identification of political Islam as domestic threat and Iran as its external hub, as well as Iran's own economic and technological weaknesses played important roles. Despite this political weaknesses and US pressures, however, Iran, with its suitable geographic location and acceptance of trampa with the energy reach countries, has emerged as an importan regional economic partner and alternative transit route.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Islam
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, Central Asia, Asia, and Azerbaijan

798. US Policies toward Central Asia and Effects of the September 11

Author:
Çagri Erhan
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
As is had been the case during the Cold War, Central Asian region was one of the priorities in the US foreign policy in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Howevwr, this gegan to change in the second half of the 1990s as the US became aware of its vital interests in the region. This led to a situıation in which the place accorded to Central Asia in the American national security strategies began to increase. Following September 11 attacks the US started cooperating with the Central Asian republics closely. US troops began to enter the region under the rhetoric of "fight against terrorism" since the end of 2001. Thus, US administration began its military opening toward the region as it had been seeking ways to gain influence in the region since the second half of the 1900s. Wahington realized its aim guickly due to the "temporary approval" of Russia and willingness of the regional countries to cooperate.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, America, Central Asia, Asia, and Soviet Union

799. Free Trade and the 2004 Presidential Race

Author:
Claude Barfield
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush offer distinct visions of how free trade would operate for the next four years. Senator Kerry has staked out a more unilateralist position with promises to review all trade agreements to strengthen labor and environmental sanctions, while President Bush reinstated trade promotion authority and expanded free trade agreements. The next president will face challenges regarding the WTO Doha Round and markets in Latin America and Asia.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
Political Geography:
Asia and Latin America

800. High-Tech Cluster Bombs: Why Successful Technology Hubs Are the Exception, Not the Rule

Author:
Scott Wallsten
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Although success stories do exist, most high-technology cluster-development projects do little to enhance regional economic growth. The taxpayer costs for a wide array of tax incentives offered by politicians to corporations and research institutes as inducements to move facilities into their districts are rarely recouped, and often only wealthy organizations and developers benefit from the projects.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia