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2. The United States and South Korea: Who Does What if the North Fails?
- Author:
- Kent Harrington and Bennett Ramberg
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Washington Quarterly
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- After several years of uncertainty about Kim Jong-un and his grip on power, analysis of North Korea has settled back into well-worn patterns. In Washington, Seoul, and elsewhere, mainstream commentary seems to have shelved concerns about the North's stability, returning instead to questions that represent hearty perennials for Pyongyang watchers: Is Kim prepared to open the North's moribund economy to Chinese-style reform, or is the latest dynastic offspring simply intent on the survival of his draconian family regime? Do the North's rhetoric and intermittent provocations threaten conflict, or are they simply more of the same theatrics out of an isolated elite? Notwithstanding its long history of broken pledges, is a nuclear deal possible—or are the North's weapons permanently in its arsenal? Add to all this the focus on North Korea's recent offer to Tokyo to investigate the fate of scores of Japanese citizens kidnapped by its agents since the 1960s, as well as the warming relations with Moscow as President Putin reaches out to burnish Russia's Asian role, and attention to Pyongyang's new normalcy appears to have supplanted anxiety about the regime's potential to fall.
- Political Geography:
- Washington, North Korea, and Tokyo
3. Walking the Wall
- Author:
- Paul Sullivan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- TOKYO—The concrete and steel tsunami wall at a nuclear plant south of Tokyo is nearly 50 feet high and stretches a mile long. It is only one of a host of other earthquake and tsunami refits—waterproofing some of the most vital areas of the plant, backing up cooling systems, and improving venting for the facility in the event of hydrogen build up. On March 11, 2011, known as 3/11 in Japan, in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daichi, thousands died in the earthquake and resulting tsunamis; countless others lost their lands and livelihoods. There were a number of casualties from stress, dislocation, and more, especially among the elderly. And worse yet, future health fallouts are still to be seen. It was unquestionably a social and cultural calamity for a country that has had so many in its past, yet always seems to recover and come back stronger than ever.
- Political Geography:
- Japan and Tokyo
4. Old Scores and New Grudges: Evolving Sino-Japanese Tensions
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Enmity between China and Japan is hardening into a confrontation that appears increasingly difficult to untangle by diplomacy. Positions on the dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku island group are wide apart, and politically viable options to bridge the gap remain elusive. New frictions have arisen. China's announcement in November 2013 of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), overlapping that of Japan's and covering the disputed islands, deepened Tokyo's anxiety that Beijing desires both territory and to alter the regional order. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's provocative visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in December 2013 triggered a bitter argument as to whether Japan has fully atoned for its Second World War aggression, a still vivid sore in the region. Amid heightened suspicion and militarisation of the East China Sea and its air space, the risks of miscalculation grow. Leadership in both countries needs to set a tone that prioritises diplomacy to calm the troubled waters: November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit might provide such an opportunity.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Bilateral Relations, Territorial Disputes, and Hegemony
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, Asia, Tokyo, and Island
5. How to Spur Afghan Reforms: The Limits and Benefits of Incentives
- Author:
- Trent Ruder
- Publication Date:
- 11-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Donors have increasingly sought to condition assistance funds for Afghanistan, particularly as a result of inadequate reforms during the Karzai administration. Since its negotiation in 2012, the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework has been the basis of most donor incentive decisions on Afghanistan. Donors need to consider who benefits from incentives, how resources and requests align, Afghanistan's capacity to implement reform, and the consequences of success or failure. Donors should both temper their expectations and minimize the linkage between highly politicized issues and incentive programs. Incentive programming is not a magic bullet, but it can help shape dialogue with the new Afghan administration.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Foreign Aid, Fragile/Failed State, Governance, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Tokyo
6. Happy 40th Anniversary...? Part 2
- Author:
- James J. Przystup
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Comparative Connections
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- The summer was not all about the Senkakus, but the islands did dominate developments in the relationship. The Ishihara Senkaku purchase plan went full speed ahead. Meanwhile, Hong Kong activists landed on the islands, sparking diplomatic protests from Tokyo; Japanese activists followed with their own landing on the islands, sparking diplomatic protests from Beijing and anti-Japanese riots across China. Relations suffered further as Tokyo hosted the convention of the World Uighur Congress and President Hu Jintao found a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Noda inconvenient. Japan's 2012 defense white paper reiterated, longstanding, but growing concerns with China's lack of transparency and the increasing activities of its navy in waters off Japan. Meanwhile public opinion on mutual perceptions continued a downward trend in both countries.
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, and Tokyo
7. Global Vice: The Expanding Territory of the Yakuza
- Author:
- Jake Adelstein and Ania Calderón
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of International Affairs
- Institution:
- School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- As the world furthers its interconnectedness, some criminal organizations formerly operating within a regional jurisdiction are now benefitting from transnational growth. Similar to international corporate expansion, members of organized crime in Japan, also called yakuza, have proven to be “innovative entrepreneurs,” increasing their profits by extending their reach. Based on his reporting on crime in Japan for more than twelve years, investigative journalist and author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, Jake Adelstein, has uncovered compelling insights from the operations of modern yakuza and their reaction toward legal constraints. In an interview with Ania Calderón of the Journal, Adelstein discusses how the yakuza are transitioning into powerful organizations and becoming increasingly international.
- Political Geography:
- Japan, America, and Tokyo
8. Worldwide Cost of Living 2012
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- For the first time in at least two decades of reporting the worldwide cost of living survey Zurich sits atop the ranking as the world's most expensive city. An index swing of 34 percentage points pushed the Swiss city up 4 places compared to last year to overtake Tokyo which remains in 2nd place. Geneva, the other Swiss city surveyed saw a 30 percentage point rise in the cost of living to move up six places into joint third alongside Osaka.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Demographics, Economics, Markets, and Urbanization
- Political Geography:
- Tokyo
9. . . . and New York and The Hague and Tokyo and Geneva and Nuremberg and . . .: The Geographies of International Law
- Author:
- David Koller
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- In the dominant narrative of international law, historical events in space and time are made to fall along an invisible line of progress, from Westphalia in 1648 through the Bretton Woods and San Francisco conferences of 1944 and 1945 to the present day and continuing on through the future to a more just world. Against this, a counter-narrative has emerged which denies the possibility of such linear development and consigns international law to forever tracing an unending circular path between points of idealism and realpolitik. This article examines how international lawyers have created and continue to create these metaphysical geographies of international law. Drawing on the work of the French multi-disciplinary thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, this article shows that both approaches, and indeed the very concept of international law, can at most only replicate and impose pre-conceived theories and that the imposition of such theories is contrary to the natural patterns of human consciousness. It urges us to see international law rather as but one manifestation of the ongoing struggle between efforts to impose unity on and to control human consciousness and the mind's efforts to break free of such restricting structures.
- Political Geography:
- Geneva, New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, Papua, and Westphalia
10. Happy 40th Anniversary...?
- Author:
- James J. Przystup
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Comparative Connections
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- With both Tokyo and Beijing intent on celebrating the 40th anniversary of normalization, bilateral relations started well in 2012 – and quickly went downhill. Contested history retuned in a controversy sparked by Nagoya Mayor Kawamura Takashi's remarks questioning the reality of the Nanjing massacre. Repeated incidents in the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands involving ships of China's State Oceanic Administration Agency and Japan's Coast Guard kept the volatile issue of sovereignty claims politically alive. Both sides engaged in island naming games to enhance sovereignty and EEZ claims in the region. In April, Tokyo Gov. Ishihara Shintaro announced plans for the Tokyo Municipal Government to purchase three of the Senkaku Islands. With that, the relationship moved into May and Prime Minister Noda's visit to China.
- Political Geography:
- China and Tokyo