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151. Regional Workshop on Dealing with Energy Vulnerabilities

Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
Abstract:
Much literature on energy security in East Asia has focused on the dynamics of competition over resources, and how conflicts could arise from this. While this analytical perspective identifies potential risks and is conducive to the proposing of pre-emptive solutions to likely problems, it also risks precluding necessary attention to the possibilities for cooperation between states in the region. While the themes of competition and conflict will continue to be relevant in discussions on East Asian states and societies, it ought to be a useful exercise to review case studies of how countries in East Asia have managed to overcome their respective vulnerabilities and thus meet their energy needs. Such knowledge can in turn contribute to the exploration of cooperation-based solutions for addressing energy security in the region.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Security, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Israel and East Asia

152. Comparative regional integration in the EU and East Asia: Moving beyond integration snobbery

Author:
Philomena Murray
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Politics
Institution:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
In comparative regional integration (RI) analysis, the European Union's (EU) advancing of its own experience as a model is a significant problem. This article explores this problem by focusing on comparative aspects of RI in the EU and East Asia. It argues that there are important and valid aspects of comparison, such as the origins and objectives of these two regions, but fewer points of comparison between the two when it comes to achieving their objectives. It suggests that historical differences between the two regions constitute the major reason that a direct comparison is neither useful nor productive. It analyses the centrality and the exceptionalism of the EU in much of the comparative RI literature. It agues that the promotion of the EU experience as a form of model or paradigm is far from analytically helpful – the method of comparative analysis needs be the focus of our study as much as the objects of comparison. The article examines how the centrality of the EU in some analysis can amount to a form of de facto snobbery in the positioning of the EU on a rather unsteady pedestal. This 'integration snobbery' – to coin a phrase utilized by an EU official – is not constructive for comparative analysis of the EU and East Asia.
Political Geography:
Europe and East Asia

153. Institutional regionalism versus networked regionalism: Europe and Asia compared

Author:
Lay Hwee Yeo
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Politics
Institution:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
For much of the second half of the twentieth century, regionalism has been conceptualized with reference to Europe. The European Union (EU) is seen as the most successful example of regional integration and this 'model' is largely based on an exclusive 'institutional' regionalism where integration is achieved through endowing specific institutions with far-reaching decision-making powers to shape the behaviour of the member states. In contrast, the East Asian region-building process seems to operate on a different logic, with an emphasis on open-ended networked regionalism. This article sketches out the process of regional construction in Europe and East Asia and attempts to develop and contextualize the idea of networked regionalism in order to assess how useful it can be in explaining the trajectory and contours of region-building in East Asia.
Political Geography:
Europe, East Asia, and Asia

154. Regions in the world: The EU and East Asia as foreign policy actors

Author:
Cesar de Prado
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Politics
Institution:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
This article argues that multidimensional regional processes have an external projection that may be explained by their semi-liberal governance structures. It analyses the European Union (EU) and the East Asian grouping of countries, focussing on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the active participation of Japan, South Korea and the People's Republic of China within ASEAN Plus Three. Both regional processes have a multi-level external projection as seen in their links with key states (especially the United States), other regional processes, and global regimes like the UN and the G20. In both cases, one finds that public actors have to collaborate with private actors, although they do so in a restricted fashion and often using think tanks and elite public-private intellectual (track-2) actors. The comparative analysis concludes with some hypotheses regarding the consolidation of regional processes in the world.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and United Nations
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Taiwan, East Asia, South Korea, and Southeast Asia

155. European and Asian monetary issues

Author:
Hee-Yul Chai
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Politics
Institution:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
In recent years, there has been considerable scholarly and policy community attention accorded to comparisons between the EU's monetary integration and attempts to create monetary integration in East Asia. This article examines these attempts in comparative perspective, focusing in particular on the challenges of monetary integration in Asia. After explaining recent development of financial and monetary cooperation initiatives in East Asia, such as Post-Chiang Mai Initiative and the attempt to introduce a Regional Currency Unit (RCU), this article illustrates why it is preferable for East Asia, in its attempt to pursue monetary integration, to follow a path similar to the European experience, rather than to follow alternative paths such as a parallel currency approach or a harmonized inflation targeting. That RCU could in the future be issued by the so-called 'Asian Exchange Rate Stabilization Fund' (AERSF). The AERSF would assure the stability of regional currencies taken as a whole vis-à-vis third currencies, and between themselves as well, and as such, pave the way for full monetary integration in Asia. Comparisons with Europe are explored and implications for European and Asian regionalism are examined.
Political Geography:
Europe, East Asia, and Asia

156. The global imbalances and the contradictions of US monetary hegemony

Author:
Mattias Vermeiren
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
Over the last decade, the world economy has been characterised by escalating global current account imbalances between the United States (US) and East Asia in particular. This article argues that US monetary hegemony has been a necessary condition for the emergence of these imbalances. It is contended that the notion of structural power is indispensable to understanding the nature of US monetary hegemony and its relation to the imbalances. US monetary structural power has both induced East Asian states to increase their accumulation of dollar-denominated assets and allowed the US to decrease its savings. The article also shows that the mechanisms of US structural monetary power contain several contradictory dynamics that are able to undermine its own purpose, which is to avoid the burden of adjustment to balance-of-payments disequilibria.
Political Geography:
United States and East Asia

157. Allied Regime Change

Author:
John Feffer
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
Earth Day was a big event this year. Sting sang on the Mall here in Washington. The citizens of Qatar turned off their power for an hour. The U.S. Navy rolled out its new biodiesel-fueled Green Hornet fighter jet. Okay, maybe the Earth was not so impressed with all the events held in its honor.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Corruption, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, and East Asia

158. Japan-Korea Relations

Author:
Ji-Young Lee and David C. Kang
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
Relations between Japan and the two Koreas were relatively uneventful in the final quarter of 2009. The new Hatoyama government quickly began to show more attention to its relations with its East Asian neighbors and hinted at a small change in priorities with respect to North Korea. South Korea and Japan said mostly all the right things, even while substantively it seemed fairly clear that they continued to have very different opinions about territorial and historical disputes. However, no real movement or dramatic changes came about during the quarter, setting the stage for 2010 – the 100th “anniversary” of Japan's annexation of Korea.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Japan, East Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Korea

159. India-US and India-East Asia Relations

Author:
Satu Limaye
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
India-US relations were characterized by a degree of ennui while India-East Asia relations were overshadowed by public tensions between China and India throughout much of the year. The Obama administration, preoccupied by multiple high-stakes domestic and foreign policy priorities, offered up two high-profile visits for New Delhi with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton going to India in July and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh coming to Washington in November as the first head of state visit. But the newly strengthened Congress-led government, which returned to power after the April-May national elections, remained wary of the Obama administration's priorities and approaches toward a range of issues including its Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) strategy, nuclear nonproliferation, and climate change, as it felt some nostalgia for the primacy of place and purpose offered to India by the bygone Bush administration. Meanwhile, in India's ties with East Asia, even though New Delhi made diplomatic forays ranging from Mongolia to Papua New Guinea to the Pacific Islands Forum to Australia while sustaining its traditional relationships with Japan and ASEAN, the tense Beijing-New Delhi interaction over the decades-old border dispute was the focus of attention for most observers.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, Japan, Washington, India, Beijing, East Asia, New Delhi, and Guinea

160. Chronology of India Relations with U.S. and East Asia

Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
No abstract is available.
Political Geography:
United States, India, and East Asia