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612. Prospects for energy cooperation in North-East Asia
- Author:
- Ernest Wyciszkiewicz
- Publication Date:
- 08-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Polish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The cooperation between the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, and Japan in the field of energy is one of the major factors defining the foreign policies of these countries and determining the strategic environment in Northeast Asia. For several years now, each of the three countries has been considering means of ensuring long-term energy security (Japan and China), and the appropriate use of existing energy potential to modernise the state and improve its international standing (Russia).Although the energy cooperation between these countries is still of a limited scope, the dynamic development of the regional energy markets is to be expected, given the fast changing international setting. The nature of future relations between the three powers (whether cooperative or confrontational) in the field of energy will have an impact on both regional and global security, particularly if one considers the growing political and economic significance of the Asia-Pacific region. An analysis of the present state of this cooperation and of its future prospects entails a discussion of the existing international and domestic conditions determining the policies of the three main actors: Russia, China, and Japan.
- Topic:
- Security and Energy Policy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Japan, China, Israel, Northeast Asia, and Asia-Pacific
613. Japan-China Relations: Four Fallacies Masquerading as Common Sense
- Author:
- Kazuo Ogoura
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- To gain insight into the future of the Sino-Japanese relationship, we need to clear up the misconceptions, misunderstandings, and errors that beset the two countries' relations and take an intellectual scalpel to their source. Some of the errors are related to the way people think about or perceive themselves, while others stem from the thinking or attitudes of the other party; still others are linked to the history of Japan-China relations. Here, in four questions and answers, are errors currently regarded as virtually self-evident truths.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- Japan and China
614. Debunking the 1930s Analogy: Neville Chamberlain's Grand Strategy Re-Examined
- Author:
- Christopher Layne
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The key events of the 1930s Hitler's rise to power, Germany's reoccupation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss with Austria, Munich and the subsequent German occupation of Prague in March 1939, and the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 transpired some seventy years ago. The events of the 1930s or at least Churchill's depiction of them have provided the standard images that have shaped U.S. foreign policy and scholarly research alike: falling dominoes, insatiable dictators, the interdependency of strategic commitments, the importance of demonstrating resolve, and the impossibility of achieving diplomatic accommodation with nondemocratic regimes. But does the myth track with the historical record? Does the 1930s myth accurately explain British grand strategy in the 1930s? Simply stated, my argument is that the 1930s myth as commonly understood in the United States is bad history, and that its use has contributed importantly to a series of dubious policy decisions by U.S. decisionmakers and still does. As I demonstrate, the British, in fact, were not willfully blind to the German threat or indifferent to the need to rearm to meet it. Rather, during the 1930s, London formulated a quintessentially realist grand strategy that attempted to blend deterrence and diplomacy to contain Hitler's Germany (and Japan and Italy), and defend Britain's interests as a world power by avoiding what, for Britain, could only be a disastrous war.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and War
- Political Geography:
- Britain, United States, Japan, Europe, London, Germany, Italy, and Austria
615. Understanding South Korea and Japan's Spectacular Broadband Development: Strategic Liberalization of the Telecommunications Sectors
- Author:
- Seung-Youn Oh and Kenji Kushida
- Publication Date:
- 06-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- The ICT sectors of both South Korea and Japan developed rapidly, especially in developing high-speed, low priced broadband services. These networks can potentially provide both economies with new playgrounds for experimentation and innovation. Existing explanations of how these broadband networks and services were created tend to be confused and contradictory regarding 1) the roles played by the states, 2) the exact mechanisms of interaction between governments policies and programs, regulatory frameworks, and market dynamics, and 3) the politics driving each of the state-market interactions.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and Markets
- Political Geography:
- Japan, Asia, and South Korea
616. An Index of Donor Performance
- Author:
- David Roodman
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The Commitment to Development Index of the Center for Global Development rates 21 rich countries on the “development-friendliness” of their policies. It is revised and updated annually. The component on foreign assistance combines quantitative and qualitative measures of official aid, and of fiscal policies that support private charitable giving. The quantitative measure uses a net transfers concept, as distinct from the net flows concept in the net Official Development Assistance measure of the Development Assistance Committee. The qualitative factors are: a penalty for tying aid; a discounting system that favors aid to poorer, better-governed recipients; and a penalty for “project proliferation.” The charitable giving measure is based on an estimate of the share of observed private giving to developing countries that is attributable to a) lower overall taxes or b) specific tax incentives for giving. De-spite the adjustments, overall results are dominated by differences in quantity of official aid given. This is because while there is a seven-fold range in net concessional transfers/GDP among the scored countries, variation in overall aid quality across donors appears far lower, and private giving is generally small. Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden score highest while the largest donors in absolute terms, the United States and Japan, rank at or near the bottom. Standings by the 2006 methodology have been relatively stable since 1995.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, Economics, and Humanitarian Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, Norway, and Netherlands
617. Perilous Journeys: The Plight of North Koreans in China and Beyond
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Scores of thousands of North Koreans have been risking their lives to escape their country's hardships in search of a better life, contributing to a humanitarian challenge that is playing out almost invisibly as the world focuses on North Korea's nuclear program. Only a little over 9,000 have made it to safety, mostly in South Korea but also in Japan, Europe and the U.S. Many more live in hiding from crackdowns and forcible repatriations by China and neighbouring countries, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. If repatriated to the North, they face harsh punishment, possibly execution. China and South Korea have held back, even during the Security Council debate over post-test sanctions, from applying as much pressure as they might to persuade Pyongyang to reverse its dangerous nuclear policy, in part because they fear that the steady stream of North Koreans flowing into China and beyond would become a torrent if the North's economy were to collapse under the weight of tough measures. While there is marginally more hope Beijing will change its ways than Pyongyang, concerned governments can and must do far more to improve the situation of the border crossers.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and Migration
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea
618. Koizumi's legacy: Japan's new politics
- Author:
- Dr. Malcolm Cook
- Publication Date:
- 08-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- September 20th will be a landmark day in Japanese politics. Junichiro Koizumi will step down as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and, consequently, as prime minister of Japan. The fact that Koizumi will be stepping down on his own terms as Japan's longest-serving post-war leader and with his favoured successor, chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe, the clear front-runner to replace him, indicates just how much this self-styled maverick has recast Japanese politics. Abe's (likely) victory will institutionalise his predecessor's political legacy. This will ensure that Koizumi was not simply a charismatic flash in the pan, as his most trenchant critics inside the LDP and out had hoped, but a political reformer who has changed the nature of Japanese politics.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Democratization, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Japan and Israel
619. What Is Tight Money?
- Author:
- John H. Makin
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- Concerns over deflation have dominated monetary policy during the past several years in Japan, and also in the United States as recently as 2003. As a result, the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve have been highly accommodative. In Japan, this took the form of a zero interest rate. In the U.S. context, it was manifest in rates at well below normal yardsticks, such as nominal GDP growth that would call for U.S. policy interest rates close to 6 percent rather than at current levels below 5 percent. Unusually accommodative monetary policies and the substantial liquidity flows they have entailed have boosted asset values and compressed risk spreads. Consequently, demand growth has persisted at high levels for long enough to cause modestly higher inflation. The time has come for tighter monetary policy, and central banks in the United States, Europe, and Japan have all begun to apply it.
- Topic:
- Economics and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, Europe, Israel, and East Asia
620. Japan Gingerly Exits Deflation
- Author:
- John H. Makin
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- In August 2000, with the Japanese growth rate holding above 2 percent, the Bank of Japan decided to initiate an end to the zero interest rate policy that it had initiated in March 1999. This step was taken despite the existence of modest deflation, indicated by readings of minus 0.2 to minus 0.5 percent on various measures of inflation. At that time, no central bank had thought seriously about deflation as a threat since the depression of the 1930s.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Japan, Israel, and East Asia