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Journal Name: International Relations of the Asia-Pacific:
April 2005, Vol. 5, No. 1
Print ISSN: 1470-482X, Online ISSN: 1470-4838
Papers
ASEAN cooperation: the legacy of the economic crisis (pp 1-29)
Etel Solingen (University of California Irvine, 2927 Woodwardia Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90077, USA.)
Abstract:
This article examines the implications of domestic political changes in the post-1997 era for ASEAN's regional cooperation and institutionalization. The conceptual framework traces regional relations to the makeup and grand strategies of domestic coalitions (internationalizing, hybrid, backlash). Had some predictions in the immediate aftermath of the crisis been fulfilled, the advent of domestic backlash coalitions would have portended lower levels of regional cooperation. Alternatively, in the absence of changes in the fundamental nature of most ruling coalitions after the crisis, ASEAN's cooperative thrust was expected to be maintained. The article explores the extent to which ASEAN's activities in the post-crisis era supports either of these two propositions. It finds that a shock of major proportions in Southeast Asia led to some immediate challenges to bilateral relations. At the same time, the aftermath of the crisis led to considerable multilateral and bilateral cooperation on economic issues, expansion, intervention, and security. Furthermore, cooperation may have indeed improved despite subsequent crises, including 9/11 and its aftermath. Yet no linear progression or irrevocable process towards internationalization or regional cooperation can be assumed. Alternative coalitions, and their potential for changing regional trajectories, must be reckoned with.
Determinants of civil war in post-colonial Asia, 1950–1992: the role of trade openness and economic development (pp 31-57)
Susumu Suzuki and Volker Krause (Department of Political Science, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 15036, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5036, USA.)
Abstract:
Although Asia has experienced civil war about as often as Sub-Saharan Africa during the post-World War II era, there have been few systematic investigations into the determinants of civil war in Asia. This article examines the effects of trade openness and economic development on the onset of civil war in post-colonial Asia, controlling for political, demographic, and geographic factors. Analyzing data on post-colonial Asian states between 1950 and 1992, we find that the onset of civil war is less likely with increased trade openness. However, when taking into account interaction between trade openness and economic development, we discover that increased trade openness reduces the likelihood of civil war onset significantly only in the context of high economic development. This result is robust with different model specifications.
Taoism and the concept of global security (pp 59-83)
Ralph Pettman (School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand.)
Abstract:
Global security is typically discussed in the rationalist terms used to articulate contemporary modernism. To restrict analysis to such articulations, however, is to accept the limits and distortions that this way of being and knowing creates. This article seeks to transgress these limits, and to compensate for these distortions. It does so by discussing the concept of global security from a Taoist perspective. Initially, it maps what global security means to rationalists. Then it discusses what Taoism entails, and compares Taoist and rationalist epistemologies. Then it compares Taoist and rationalist thinking about global security, defined first in more general, 'human' security terms, and second in more particular, politico-strategic terms. It concludes by highlighting the significance of the Taoist concept of wu-wei ('no unnatural action'), and of Taoism as one way in which to contextualise the rationalist construction of global security.
Still bilateral after all these years: US–Japan trade negotiations in telecommunications (pp 85-103)
Eiji Kawabata (Department of Political Science, 109 Morris Hall, Minnesota State University–Mankato, Mankato, MN 56001, USA.)
Abstract:
Telecommunications is a leading industry that occupies a significant part of the contemporary economy and impacts economic development considerably. Since the 1980s, three major trade disputes in telecommunications – the NTT procurement, MOSS/Motorola, and NTT interconnection charge disputes – have developed between the Japanese and US governments. In responding to US pressures, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has generally been receptive to US demands and willing to contain negotiations to a bilateral format, unlike the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which has become resistant to US pressures and active in utilizing multilateral arrangements. This paper shows that explicit government involvement in the industry concerned, combined with strong US pursuit of negotiations, made it difficult for MPT to resist US pressure and resulted in its enactment of measures conciliatory toward the United States. These findings are then applied to brief analyses of other trade disputes to show the generalizability of the approach.
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (2005)
Copyright ©2005 Oxford University Press and the Japan Association of International Relations
(This journal is available online at: http://irap.oupjournals.org/)
Posted with permission from the publisher.
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