The International Relations Of Northeast Asia

Written by a team of leading scholars, this volume presents a variety of theoretical perspectives and case studies to offer a comprehensive analysis of the pressures that shape the policy choices of China, Russia, Japan, the United States, North and South Korea, and Taiwan.

Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia examines the causes of lasting and complex tensions in the region from underlying political, historical, military and economic perspectives; discusses their historical development and political-economic implications for the world; and explores possible solutions to build lasting peace. The book is unique in that it approaches the topic from the historical perspective of each constituent country in the region. Major global powers such as the United States and Russia have also closely engaged in the political and economic affairs of this region through a network of alliances, diplomacy, trade and investment. The book also discusses the influence of these external powers over the crisis, their political and economic objectives in the region, their strategies and the dynamics that their engagement has created. Both South Korea and North Korea have sought reunification of the Korean peninsula, which will have a substantial impact on the region. The book examines its justification, feasibility and effects for the region. The book discusses the role of Mongolia in the context of the power dynamics in Northeast Asia. A relatively small country, in terms of its population, Mongolia has rarely been examined in this context; Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia makes a fresh assessment of its potential role.

Northeast Asia, where the interests of three major nuclear powers and the world's two largest economies converge around the unstable pivot of the Korean peninsula, is a region rife with political-economic paradox. It ranks today among the most dangerous areas on earth, plagued by security problems of global importance, including nuclear and missile proliferation. Yet, despite its insecurity, the region has continued to be the most rapidly growing on earth for over five decades—and it is emerging as an identifiable economic, political, and strategic region in its own right. As the locus of both economic growth and political-military uncertainty in Asia has moved further to the Northeast, a need has developed for a book that focuses analytically on prospects for Northeast Asian cooperation within the context of both Asia and the Asia-Pacific regional relationship. This book does exactly that, while also offering a more general theory for Asian institution building.

The dynamics of Northeast Asia have traditionally been considered primarily in military and hard security terms or alternatively along their economic dimensions. This book argues that relations among the states of Northeast Asia are far more comprehensible when the mutually shaping interactions between economics and security are considered simultaneously. It examines these interactions and some of the key empirical questions they pose, the answers to which have important lessons for international relations beyond Northeast Asia. Contributors to this volume analyze how the states of the region define their ‘security’, and how bilateral relations in hard security issues and economic linkages play out among Japan, China and the two Koreas. Further, the chapters interrogate how different patterns of techno-nationalist development affect regional security ties, and the extent to which closer economic connections enhance or detract from a nation’s self-perceived security. The book concludes by discussing scenarios for the future and the conditions that will shape relations between economics and security in the region. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Asian politics, Asian economics, security studies and political economy.

Territorial disputes are one of the main sources of tension in Northeast Asia. Escalation in such conflicts often stems from a widely shared public perception that the territory in question is of the utmost importance to the nation. While that's frequently not true in economic, military, or political terms, citizens' groups and other domestic actors throughout the region have mounted sustained campaigns to protect or recover disputed islands. Quite often, these campaigns have wide-ranging domestic and international consequences. Why and how do territorial disputes that at one point mattered little, become salient? Focusing on non-state actors rather than political elites, Alexander Bukh explains how and why apparently inconsequential territories become central to national discourse in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. These Islands Are Ours challenges the conventional wisdom that disputes-related campaigns originate in the desire to protect national territory and traces their roots to times of crisis in the respective societies. This book gives us a new way to understand the nature of territorial disputes and how they inform national identities by exploring the processes of their social construction, and amplification.

An accessible overview of political, economic, and strategic dimensions of global supply chains in a changing global political economy.

Asia in International Relations decolonizes conventional understandings and representations of Asia in International Relations (IR). This book opens by including all those geographical and cultural linkages that constitute Asia today but are generally ignored by mainstream IR. Covering the Indian subcontinent, Turkey, the Mediterranean, Iran, the Arab world, Ethiopia, and Central-Northeast-Southeast Asia, the volume draws on rich literatures to develop our understanding of power relations in the world’s largest continent. Contributors "de-colonize", "de-imperialize", and "de-Cold War" the region to articulate an alternative narrative about Asia, world politics, and IR. This approach reframes old problems in new ways with the possibility of transforming them, rather than recycling the same old approaches with the same old "intractable" outcomes.

The problem of memory in China, Japan and Korea involves a surfeit rather than a deficit of memory, and the consequence of this excess is negative: unforgettable traumas prevent nations from coming to terms with the problems of the present. These compelling essays enrich Western scholarship by applying to it insights derived from Asian settings.

In Maritime Disputes in Northeast Asia: Regional Challenges and Cooperation, Suk Kyoon Kim provides an important multidisciplinary perspective on maritime disputes in one of the most dynamic areas of the world: Northeast Asia, a region of divergent political and economic systems where the legacy of a tumultuous past continues to overshadow current events. The text highlights maritime issues on the Korean Peninsula and extends an analytical eye to neighboring China, Japan and Russia. Kim explores in-depth the factors and issues at stake with complex maritime disputes, focusing on maritime boundary delimitation, territory, energy resources, fishery, marine pollution, and security and safety. This volume provides a timely international law perspective informed by an intricate historical, political, and socio-economic context, while offering a vision for future cooperation.

As the world's most dynamic region, Asia embodies explosive economic growth, diverse political systems, vibrant societies, modernizing militaries, cutting-edge technologies, rich cultural traditions amid globalization, and strategic competition among major powers. As a result, international relations in Asia are evolving rapidly. In this fully updated and expanded volume, leading scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America offer the most current and definitive analysis available of Asia's regional relationships. They set developments in Asia in theoretical context, assess the role of leading external and regional powers, and consider the importance of subregional actors and linkages. Combining interpretive richness and factual depth, their essays provide an authoritative and stimulating overview. Students of contemporary Asian affairs—new to the field and old hands alike—will find this book an invaluable read. Contributions by: Amitav Acharya, Sebastian Bersick, Nayan Chanda, Ralph A. Cossa, Michael Green, Samuel S. Kim, Edward J. Lincoln, Martha Brill Olcott, T.V. Paul, Phillip C. Saunders, David Shambaugh, Sheldon W. Simon, Scott Snyder, Robert Sutter, Hugh White, and Michael Yahuda