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1911. Where was united Africa in the climate change negotiations?

Author:
Jean-Christophe Hoste
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
A political commitment was reached in Copenhagen between five countries: US, China, India Brazil and South Africa. The rest of the conference simply “took note of it”, most with resignation, many with anger. This policy brief will have a closer look at the climate change negotiations from an African perspective. It will try to answer three questions to see whether the outcome of the negotiations was as unacceptable as South Africa said it was. First, what was the African Common Position and what were some of their demands? Second, how did the negotiating strategy to defend the African Common Position on climate change evolve? Third, why did South Africa call the agreement it negotiated with the US, China and India unacceptable but did it not decline to be part of that deal?
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Globalization, International Cooperation, Politics, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
United States, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil

1912. The Economy of Burma/Myanmar on the Eve of the 2010 Elections

Author:
Lex Rieffel
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
The government of Burma is undergoing a critical transition: Before the end of 2010, the military regime that has ruled the country since a palace coup in 1998 will hold an election based on a constitution drafted in a nondemocratic process and approved by a referendum in 2008. The referendum fell far short of global standards of credibility and the election is likely to yield a government that neither the antimilitary movement nor the international community view as legitimate. However, the constitution and election also may offer opportunities for further international involvement that began in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Burma's lagging economic performance—socioeconomic indicators placed it among the world's most impoverished in 2000—is due to a simmering internal conflict based on ethnic and religious differences. Successive military regimes after the failure of Burma's parliamentary government in 1962 have managed to further alienate the population and monopolize the benefits of Burma's abundant natural resources. Growth-disabling economic policies and brutal suppression of dissent since 1988 have caused an exodus of political and economic refugees estimated to be in excess of 3 million. However, Burma occupies a strategic space in the Southeast Asian region. It is a major supplier of natural gas to Thailand and could be a major agricultural exporter, as it was before World War II. Also, Burma is arguably the greatest obstacle to the 2015 integration objectives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and its internal conflict contributes to tension between China and India. There is a glimmer of hope that the next government will consider economic policies conducive to sustainable economic growth, thereby improving the environment for political reconciliation. If so, the challenge for the international community will be to find ways to support economic policy changes in this direction that do not trigger a backlash from the country's military rulers. Though difficult, it may be possible to accomplish this through a patient economic strategy that involves more nuanced use of sanctions and effective collaboration with other actors in the region, particularly ASEAN.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Economics, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
China, India, Burma, Southeast Asia, and Myanmar

1913. Renminbi Undervaluation, China's Surplus, and the US Trade Deficit

Author:
William R. Cline
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
On June 21, 2010, in the run-up to the G-20 meeting in Toronto, China announced that it would shift to a more flexible exchange rate policy. From mid-June to July 30 the yuan rose 0.8 percent against the dollar. In contrast, the currency had remained fixed (at about 6.83 yuan to the dollar) from September 2008 to early June 2010. Pressure not only from the United States and the European Union but also from Russia, Brazil, and India as well as the IMF seems likely to have played a role in China's decision, although concerns about domestic inflation may also have been a factor.
Topic:
Economics and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
United States and China

1914. The Causes of the Korean War, 1950-1953

Author:
Chang-Il Ohn
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
The causes of the Korean War (1950-1953) can be examined in two categories, ideological and political. Ideologically, the communist side, including the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, desired to secure the Korean peninsula and incorporate it in a communist bloc. Politically, the Soviet Union considered the Korean peninsula in the light of Poland in Eastern Europe—as a springboard to attack Russia—and asserted that the Korean government should be “loyal” to the Soviet Union. Because of this policy and strategic posture, the Soviet military government in North Korea (1945-48) rejected any idea of establishing one Korean government under the guidance of the United Nations. The two Korean governments, instead of one, were thus established, one in South Korea under the blessing of the United Nations and the other in the north under the direction of the Soviet Union. Observing this Soviet posture on the Korean peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung asked for Soviet support to arm North Korean forces and Stalin fully supported Kim and secured newly-born Communist China's support for the cause. Judging that it needed a buffer zone against the West and Soviet aid for nation building, the Chinese government readily accepted a role to aid North Korea, specifically, in case of full American intervention in the projected war. With full support from the Soviet Union and comradely assistance from China, Kim Il-sung attacked South Korea with forces that were better armed, equipped, and prepared than their counterparts in South Korea.
Political Geography:
China, America, South Korea, North Korea, Poland, and Soviet Union

1915. Chinese Perspectives on the Origins of the Korean War: An Assessment at Sixty

Author:
Steven M. Goldstein
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
A discussion of the evolution and present state of Chinese research concerning the origins of the Korean War, with particular emphasis on the impact of the strategic aims of Joseph Stalin on the options open to China in the spring of 1950.
Political Geography:
China and Korea

1916. From Korea to Vietnam: The Evolution of U.S. Interventionism in Asia

Author:
Mel Gurtov
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
The wars in Korea and Vietnam were of a piece, directly related by virtue of U.S. global strategy and China's security concerns. This article, focusing mainly on the U.S. side in these wars, argues that three characteristics of American policy had enduring meaning for the rest of the Cold War and even beyond: the official mindsets that led to U.S. involvement, the centrality of the China threat in American decision making, and the common legacy of intervention against nationalism and in support of authoritarian regimes.
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, Asia, Vietnam, and Korea

1917. The Impact of the Korean War on the Political-Economic System of North Korea

Author:
Scott Snyder and Joyce Lee
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
The impact of the Korean War on North Korean politics, economy, foreign policy, and relations with the United States has been significant. The unsuccessful conclusion of war brought about dramatic changes in North Korea's political economic system by ending direct Soviet control, providing a basis for the consolidation of Kim Il Sung's power within the Korean Workers' Party, and feeding a desire on the part of Kim Il Sung to impose political and economic control as the self-actualized “center.” Kim Il Sung's ability to eliminate political rivals and establish and lead a totalitarian political system requiring loyalty to himself and his son, Kim Jong Il, the initial success of North Korea's centrally-planned economic system and mass mobilization policies that marked the height of North Korea's economic success in the 1950s and 1960s, a complex relationship between the Soviet Union and China that Kim Il Sung was able to manipulate to North Korea's advantage, and the enduring legacy of enmity between the United States and North Korea despite dramatic changes in the international system are factors that have clear influence on post-war North Korea. These influences persist today as dominant influences on North Korea's internal politics, economics, and foreign policy.
Political Geography:
United States, China, North Korea, Soviet Union, and Korea

1918. Russian-Chinese Relations: Keeping up the Pace

Author:
A. Lukin
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
East View Information Services
Abstract:
OCTOBER 2009 marked the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the PRC and establishment of relations between communist China and the Soviet Union. The first event was celebrated with great pomp in China, and many solemn and ceremonial functions were held in honor of the second. Today, now that they are over, the time has come to draw some conclusions, make a realistic assessment of the level of relations between Moscow and Beijing, identify the problems, and propose ways to resolve them.
Political Geography:
China, Beijing, and Soviet Union

1919. On the Economics of Regional Powers: Comparing China, India, Brazil, and South Africa

Author:
Robert Kappel
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
As the conception of and debates on regional powers have been led by political science, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion from an economics perspective. Based on the discussion of different concepts of economic power—such as those of Schumpeter, Perroux, Predöhl, or Kindleberger—concepts of technological leadership, and the global value chain approaches, the paper develops a research framework for the economics of regional powers. This framework is then tested using descriptive statistics as well as regressions analysis, with a focus on the four regional powers Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. As economic power is relational, the relationship of regional powers to other nations in the region is analyzed.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, and Latin America

1920. Will China relocate its labor-intensive factories to Africa, flying-geese style?

Author:
Terutomo Ozawa and Christian Bellak
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
China has developed increasingly close economic relations with Africa in its quest for oil and minerals through investment and aid. The World Ban k recently called upon China to transplant labor-intensive factories onto the continent. A question arises as to whether such an industrial relocation will be done in such a fashion to jump-start local economic development—as previously seen across East Asia and as described in the flying-geese (FG) paradigm of FD.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Africa and China