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121. Understanding Northeast Asian regional dynamics: inventory checking and new discourses on power, interest, and identity

Author:
Chung-in Moon and Jong Kun Choi
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Northeast Asia has emerged as the center of gravity in contemporary international relations (IR), partly owing to China's rise, over the past two decades. In understanding regional dynamics in Northeast Asia, the (neo-) realist perspective has been dominant. Despite its rich analytical and empirical contribution, however, preoccupation with power and its distribution, blurred geographic focus, and built-in status quo bias have prevented the existing realist literature to capture the new reality of the region that can be characterized by trends toward liberal transition, the politics of national identity, and growing correlates of perception, domestic politics, and regional interactions. Against this backdrop, we attempt to undertake an inventory checking of new discourses on power, interest, and identity in accounting for regional change and stability as well as to shed new light on debates on theorizing of IR in Northeast Asia.
Political Geography:
China and Northeast Asia

122. Civilization and Empire: China and Japan's Encounter with European International Society

Author:
Tetsuya Sakai
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Situated in the twenty-first century world, the idea of an empire justified by the notion of 'civilization's mission' might seem anachronistic and indifferent to us. Contemporary International Society, however, cannot be totally free from the lineage of civilization and empire descending from the European International Society of the late nineteenth century. The problem of 'failed states' and states that abuse human rights, which has surfaced after the demise of the Cold War, often calls into question whether or not it is necessary for Contemporary International Society to utilize its 'civilizing' mode of interaction and intervene in such states. While such arguments are often inspired by a genuine desire to bring about a more humane international life, it cannot be denied that they have uncomfortable similarities with the late nineteenth century (pp. 182–183). International Society still has a dualistic mode: coexistence among 'civilized' states and 'civilizing' backward states.
Political Geography:
Japan, China, and Europe

123. The Long Shadow: Nuclear Weapons and Security in 21st Century Asia

Author:
Tetsuya Umemoto
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Proliferation optimism and pessimism have set the parameters for debate about the strategic impact of the spread of nuclear weapons to an increasing number of actors. Nuclear proliferation strengthens international peace and stability, optimists argue, because the prospect of nuclear devastation would make state leaders ever more cautious in conducting external relations. Pessimists counter that the wider the ownership of nuclear arms, the greater the danger of nuclear calamity, which could result not only from deliberate release of nuclear forces but also from accidental or unauthorized detonation of nuclear devices as well as nuclear terrorism.
Political Geography:
Asia

124. Erratum

Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
The publishers would like to apologise for an error in International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 9(3), 2009, p. 373. The author's affiliation was published incorrectly as Keio University, Japan. The correct affiliation should be as follows: University of Freiburg, Department of Political Science, Freiburg, Germany.
Political Geography:
Germany

125. Australia, Indonesia, and West Papuan refugees, 1962–2009

Author:
Klaus Neumann and Savitri Taylor
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
In this paper we examine the Australian government's response to West Papuan asylum-seekers during the period 1962–2009. We argue that, throughout this period, the Australian government has attempted to appease the sensitivities of its powerful northern neighbour, Indonesia, as far as it can without outraging a domestic public sympathetic to West Papuans or drawing international condemnation by too obviously breaching international law. For the most part, it has done so by trying to avoid accommodating refugees from Indonesia, liaising closely with the Indonesian government in relation to asylum-seekers, and assuring the Indonesian government of its unequivocal support for Indonesian territorial integrity.
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Australia

126. Subaltern straits: 'exit', 'voice', and 'loyalty' in the United States–China–Taiwan relations

Author:
L.H.M. Ling, Ching-Chane Hwang, and Boyu Chen
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Mainstream approaches perpetuate the Taiwan–China 'crisis'. They do so by following Cold-War concepts and prescriptions, despite the rise of new realities and new visions for cross-strait relations. We draw on Hirschman's identification of 'loyalty' and 'voice' to describe the mainstream discourse on cross-strait relations in Taiwan, mostly directed by the United States. But a third option is now emerging. It offers the possibility of a paradigmatic breakthrough or 'exit' based on articulations of a postcolonial subjectivity for Taiwan and its relations with China.
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Taiwan

127. Russia's breakthrough into the Asia-Pacific: China's role

Author:
Gaye Christoffersen
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Russia's place in the Asia-Pacific region (APR) is undefined, hovering between Moscow's grandiose visions of its geopolitical role in balance of power strategies, and Russia's near invisibility in the region. Russia's integration into the Asia-Pacific has been dependent on China to give Russia a legitimate political and military presence in the region. Moscow blames mistakes it has made in Asia Pacific integration, 1992– 2005, on this China dependence, and expects that post-2006 Russian integration will be different as Moscow diversifies its relations in the region, culminating in Russia hosting the APEC 2012 summit.
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Moscow, and Asia-Pacific

128. Collective identity formation on the Korean Peninsula: United States' different North Korea policies, Kim Dae-Jung's Sunshine Policy, and United States–South Korea–North Korea relations

Author:
Young Chul Cho
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Focusing on the US Clinton and Bush administration's dissimilar security policies and practices toward the Korean Peninsula, this article aims to examine how the two different external security environments shaped South Korea's collective identity in relation, respectively, to the United States and North Korea, and the Sunshine Policy in different ways, with a temporal focus on the Kim Dae-Jung administration (1998–2003). In so doing, this article will investigate the following substantive questions: what are the reason and implication of harmony between South Korea–US alliance identity and inter-Korean national identity in South Korea during the Clinton administration? In contrast, what are the reason and implication of discord between the two identities during the Bush administration? Related to these questions, this article presents two analytical arguments on the formation of South Korea's collective identity associated with the Sunshine Policy, along with an International Relations theoretical argument implicated in the empirical analysis.
Political Geography:
United States and Korea

129. Domestic sources of Japanese foreign policy activism: loss avoidance and demand coherence

Author:
Mireya Solís and Saori N. Katada
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
The conventional view in the field of international political economy – that greater economic interdependence creates an incentive for active foreign policy engagement – is hard to reconcile with Japan's foreign economic policy. To explain this counterintuitive outcome, we develop a new model of domestic demand for policy activism that integrates strands of prospect theory, collective action, and interest aggregation. We argue that both the rationale for mobilization and lobbying capacity are essential elements in understanding the domestic demand for significant foreign policy departures. We apply this conceptual framework to Japanese foreign economic policy in two issue areas: finance (Japan's response to the 1980s Latin American debt crisis and the late 1990s Asian Financial Crisis), and trade (Japan's Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Mexico and South Korea).
Political Geography:
Japan, Asia, South Korea, Latin America, and Mexico

130. Not just global rhetoric: Japan's substantive actualization of its human security foreign policy

Author:
Tan Hsien-Li
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
While there is much theoretical and academic discussion of human security, as well as regional expressions of human security by the Organization of American States, African Union, and the European Union, little of this is translated into substance except for Japan, which has incorporated human security into foreign policy. This paper examines Japan's definition and aspiration for human security, especially its plans to expand development aid through this modality in Southeast Asia. This scrutiny will encompass Japanese human security foreign policy and its substantive action through the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the UN Trust Fund for Human Security. Thus, the potential for Japanese human security cooperation with Southeast Asian partners will be reviewed in light of Japan's projected trajectory. The paper concludes by positing that bilateral engagement might be expected for the considerable future and suggests policy consolidation before regional engagement can be effected.
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, America, Europe, and Southeast Asia