Asian International Relations Research Articles

Türkiye’s “-lateralisms” in Asia: A Multi-Vectorial Analysis

This study aims to illustrate that multi-vectorial approaches in foreign policy could not only be practical but also productive for middle powers. With this aim, the study conceptualizes Turkish foreign policy in Asia with multi-vectorism, a foreign policy behavioral pattern that has been mainly utilized for post-Soviet countries’ concurrent interactions with the West (the EU, the U.S.) and the non-West (Russia). The study, firstly, argues that Asian international relations require a more composite re-definition of multi-vectorism, since in Asia, due to the intra-regional fragmentations and diversions, there are more than the conventional two vectors, the West and the non-West. By considering this argument the study applies multi-vectorism to Türkiye’s foreign policy in Asia by comparing the practicability of different interaction patterns, e.g., multilateralism, minilateralism, and bilateralism. The study, secondly, argues that Türkiye’s multi-vectorial foreign policy in Asia is particularly successful in its bilateral relations and less so in its multilateral and minilateral interactions.

Political healing in East Asian international relations: what, why and how

The opening article of this collection serves as an invitation to academics and practitioners of international relations to rethink and transform, not merely observe and contain, long-standing conflicts in East Asia and beyond. Traditionally such conflicts, and the violence that has emerged around them, have been understood through the lens of dichotomous frameworks associated with Westphalian modernity. We need alternative paradigms in East Asian political discourse to think and do differently. Here, we contribute to this effort by examining how East Asian medical thought and practice can facilitate political healing in the region. The use of medical analogies and metaphors is not uncommon in academic and policy discussions, and our approach underscores terminologies and thought processes that resonate with many in the region. East Asian medicine (EAM) is rooted in Daoist yin/yang dialectics and the concept of qi, both of which stress attention to balance, ontological parity and inter-connectedness. It offers inspiration for a creative analytical approach, metaphorical imagination and normative inspiration to diagnose ongoing confrontations. Despite apparent divisions, we propose that ongoing conflicts can be treated as ailments afflicting a shared political body.

Timur Dadabaev’s Decolonizing Central Asian International Relations as Interdisciplinary Study

Timur Dadabaev’s Decolonizing Central Asian International Relations as Interdisciplinary Study

A modern japán birodalom születése

Japan represents a special case in the history of colonialism at the end of the 19th century. At the middle of the 19th century, it was a closed East Asian country that was forced by the Western colonial powers to open its doors to the outside world, but in the second half of the 19th century, it started a modernization process following the „Western model”. Japan defined itself as a modern nation-state, and with the successful modernization, economic and military advancements it could acquire territories in Asia through military actions or agreements with the great colonizing powers. By the beginning of the 20th century, Japan had become a colonizing country in Asia, instead of being colonized. In order to understand this process thoroughly and to interpret Japanese colonization and imperialism at the end of the 19th century, it is necessary on one hand to briefly summarize East Asian international relations of the second half of the century, and to review the changing environment in which Japan had to find a place for itself in this era. On the other hand, the internal development of Japan must also be examined, especially the state in which the new challenges of the outside world reached the country, and the political and ideological sources of the response the political leaders of the time gave to them. Understanding Japanese development needs an examination of the characteristics and significance of Japanese cultural traditions and political thoughts, which influenced Japan's modern politics besides the "universal" models of that time (capitalist development, colonization, imperialism). This paper attempts to provide an interpretation of the multifaceted relationship between Japan and colonization with attention to the external and internal factors that influenced Japanese policy at the turn of the 19-20th centuries.

Seeking status and ontological security in hierarchy: Korea in the historical East Asian order

Abstract This article argues that secondary states in international hierarchy pursue distinctive strategies to define and secure their identities. When and why do they adopt strategy of socialization and emulation? When and why do they prioritize security of identity even at the expense of physical security? To address these questions, I empirically examine the relationships between Korea and imperial China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. I ask why Chosŏn Korea chose to voluntarily subordinate to the Ming, and why it risked its survival during the period of obvious power transition with the rise of the Qing. I develop a theory of secondary states’ identity-seeking based on social identity theory and ontological security studies. Theoretically, it suggests a new mechanism in which secondary states’ status-seeking generates a lock-in effect through deep socialization. Empirically, it adds to the growing literature on historical East Asian international relations by explicitly theorizing secondary states’ quest for identity.

The Making and Production Circumstances of Child Design Goryeo Celadon

This paper aims to reveal how and when child design celadon was produced in Goryeo and the circumstances under which the designs were created. As child design celadon vessels are discovered in kiln sites in Gangjin and Buan or at palace sites or tombs of royal family where they were used, it is likely that they were made for the ruling class. The design first appeared on celadon ware in the 12<sup>th</sup> century and was mainly produced and consumed in the 13<sup>th</sup> century. Its appearance decreased after the early 14th century as influences of the Yuan culture changed the culture of Goryeo. Child designs on Goryeo celadon could be categorized into two major types: type A, which combines child design with plant scroll motifs and type B, where child designs are drawn in picture-like detail. The type A is similar to Ding ware from Song and Jin dynasties, and the type B to paintings of Song dynasty. The influences to the child design were analyzed by examining images that had been popular in China, tracing how they were introduced to Goryeo, and studying related historical documents. Child designs on Goryeo celadon are the outcome of active cultural exchanges with surrounding countries and art works that traveled between them. It serves as an example that demonstrates how an image was introduced and accepted in medieval East Asian international relations.

Understanding Mistrust and Instability in East Asia

In recent years, East Asian countries have faced numerous security threats, including territorial disputes in the East China Sea, the US-China conflict, and economic turmoil due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under such circumstances, a stable regional order and economic prosperity are crucial. This essay reviews three recent books that attempt to identify the distinct features of East Asian international relations and the main causes of regional instability. The first part of this essay addresses the main themes and contributions of each book, and o ers an evaluation of their implications. The second section focuses on two key themes touched on in each of the books: "China and East Asian regional order" and "history still matters." The conclusion presents the challenges to, and provides recommendations for, peaceful coexistence in East Asia. This review elucidates not only the distinct features of current Sino-Japanese relations and East Asia's international politics but also addresses the future of the region.

Godzilla vs Pulgasari: Anti-Japanism and Anti-Communism as Dueling Antagonisms in South Korean Politics

AbstractSouth Korea's persistent enmity towards its erstwhile colonizer Japan has been a compelling topic of East Asian international relations scholarship for decades. This article argues that the historical evolution of South Korea's democracy offers a vital and overlooked piece of this puzzle. Given that it emerged from one of the most virulently anti-communist dictatorships of the Cold War period, in a society facing an ongoing threat from communist North Korea, any left-of-center opposition movement faced an uphill battle against severe anti-communism. In such circumstances, the only way for a leftist opposition party to survive was by pitting its stronger anti-Japan reputation against conservatives’ anti-communism. After South Korea's democracy stabilized, liberals tried and failed to overturn the anti-leftist institutions left over from the Cold War and then sought equilibrium through parallel rhetoric targeting pro-Japanese elements. Today, neither left nor right can afford to allow a final amicable settlement with its respective target of antagonism. Through analyses of domestic political rhetoric targeting alleged pro-Japanese or pro-communist elements, this paper demonstrates how these competing antagonisms achieved an uneasy equilibrium that undergirds South Korean political dynamics to this day.

Sungmoon Kim’s Democracy After Virtue

Sungmoon Kim’s <i>Democracy After Virtue</i>

Gagliardone, Iginio. 2019. China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet. London: Zed Books

He holds a PhD and is Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics, Philosophical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. He specialises in Chinese modern history, Chinese foreign politics, international relations in Asia, and the history of Asian political thinking. He is the author of the book John Rawls a Teorie Mezinárodních Vztahů [John Rawls and the Theory of International Relations]. E-mail: stanislav.mysicka@uhk.cz

Prospects for Establishing Partnership Relations between India and Iran (Significance for Russia)

The article is dedicated to the features and potential of the emerging strategic partnership relations between India and Iran. The relevance of the study is determined primarily by the necessity of understanding the new challenges and trends that have emerged in Asia as a result of the formation of India as a great power and a sharp increase in the role of Iran in the megaregion. Analysis of the main approaches of India and Iran to the creation of a new paradigm of international relations in Asia is given with respect to the inclusion of the issue in the strategies of the leading powers of the continent. The role of project diplomacy in the energy and transport spheres in the formation of a trusted connection in the Middle East and Central Asia, including the settlement of the situation in Afghanistan, is shown. It was noted that the exceptional continuity which is one of the basic features of India's development, found its expression in the balancing behavior, including in South-West Asia, where Iran is one of the key players which is under US sanctions, and which foreign policy has retained its commitment to the goals of the Islamic revolution and dominance in the region. At the same time, over the past 2 years, negative trends have emerged in India's foreign policy, indicating that the positions of pro-American forces have significantly strengthened, which can undermine the general consensus on foreign policy that has existed for more than half a century. The focus is on the problems of the participation of India and Iran in the implementation of the international initiatives Belt and Road and the International North-South Transport Corridor (Southeast Asia – India – Iran – Russia – Europe). The study of cooperation in the field of energy (identification of the Iranian potential; supply of hydrocarbons to India; the possibility of buying liquefied gas by India; construction of a strategic gas pipeline from Iran to India, including the sea route, and possible participation of Russia in this project) and prospects for the growth of the Indian-Iranian trade turnover and changes in its structure are also crucial tasks in the analysis of Indian-Iranian economic relations.

BOOK REVIEW: The US-Thai Alliance and Asian International Relations: History, Memory and Current Developments, by Gregory Raymond and John Blaxland

Contemporary Southeast Asia (CSEA) is one of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute"s flagship publications. Now in its fourth decade of publication, CSEA has succeeded in building up an international reputation as one of Southeast Asia"s premier academic journals. The aim of the peer reviewed journal is to provide subscribers with up to date and in-depth analysis of critical trends and developments in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region. The primary focus of the journal is on issues related to domestic politics in Southeast Asian countries, regional architecture and community building, military, strategic and security affairs, conflict zones and relations among the Great Powers. CSEA publishes authoritative, insightful and original contributions from scholars, think-tank analysts, journalists and policy-makers from across the globe. The Editorial Committee is guided by the advice of the International Advisory Committee which is composed of eminent scholars from Asia, the United States, Australia and Europe.

Foreign news in East Asia’s mass media: new research directions

The article discusses the prospects of the foreign news research in the media of modern East Asia. The authors present a brief literature review on political discourse in East Asian media and suggest possible research strategies for studying the international agenda in the media of these countries. The article argues that such research approach is valuable as it allows one to better understand the way East Asian countries view foreign news and international relations, study the socio-political processes in this region from a new angle and evaluate the role of the media in politics. The article discusses several social sciences theories that can help to explain and interpret observations obtained during the analysis of publications in the media, for example, the theory of media domestication, the concepts of external legitimacy and &amp;quot;othering&amp;quot;. Political regime, independence and commercialization of the media are discussed among explanatory factors. The authors pay attention to the specifics of these theories’ application to the case of East Asia, provide recommendations for data collection and research methods, and discuss various research trajectories. For example, researchers can focus on trends in the representation of an event in the media using content analysis of a large number of publications, another possible strategy is to study a small number of articles using critical discourse analysis in order to identify discursive practices and their relationship with political processes and power. Knowledge of the language, history, politics and culture of East Asian countries, gives researchers of East Asia a significant advantage in conducting such research and could provide valuable contributions.

Examining The International Relations Theory Of The Asia Pacific

The question whether the IR theories used to analyse and study the Asian region particularly Asia Pacific is relevant or not remains heatedly debated within the field itself. Prominent scholars such as David C. Kang, Barry Buzan, and Peter Katszeinstein, and Amitav Acharya have argued through their works that the study of Asian region is often analysed by IR theories that is dominated by the Western knowledge and experiences. This essay hence would like to examine which theories are the most relevant and useful to depict and explain the dynamic of international relations in Asia, particularly the Asia Pacific. It argues that IR theories that cover the dynamics of international, historical and social relations of the Asian countries would likely the most useful and relevant to analysing the IR of the Asia-Pacific.

Okinawa Beyond the Hub-and-spoke Alliance System: A Reappraisal

Okinawa is a cornerstone of the US–Japan alliance. However, it has been marginalised in East Asian international relations whereby a state-centric view of international relations predominates. In an era of power transitions and increasing importance of non-traditional security concerns, Washington and Tokyo need to recognise Okinawa’s contribution as a non-state actor in upholding human security values for the alliance to stay attuned to shifting regional and global needs.

Dependency among Kautilya’s Three Major Ideas: Upaya, Sadgunya, and Prakrti

Since the rediscovery of Kautilya’s Arthasastra, it is considered as one of the oldest books on statecrafts and political realism in the world. In the book Arthasastra, Kautilya has described many ideas of statecraft, and they are still in the use of state polity. Until now some of his ideas remained unextractable. Many scholars in South Asia and the West are practicing the ideas formulated by Kautilya. Yet, as a native South Asian political fractional and international relations theorist, Kautilya remained under-exposed. Nevertheless, this current study is an attempt to find the dependency among the three significant concepts by Kautilya from his Arthasastra. In the study, the researcher has attempted to show how shifts in one of the three major concepts can change the other two. They are entirely dependent on each other. The researcher has made an effort to create a ‘measurement scale’ to measure the dependence among the ‘Upaya, Sadgunya, and Prakrti.’ On the other hand, since these concepts can also be found in the modern-day state system, the study has analyzed the ‘1962 Sino-Indian War’ concerning those three concepts. This current research is an explorative investigation.

Author's Response: Revisiting Asia's Regional Architecture

Author's Response:Revisiting Asia's Regional Architecture Andrew Yeo (bio) I am sincerely grateful to each of the roundtable participants not only for sharing insights and praise for Asia's Regional Architecture but also for using my monograph to spark further discussion regarding Asian security and the future of the Indo-Pacific order. I am pleased to continue a conversation that began as an "author meets critic" panel in Singapore at the International Studies Association's 2019 Asia-Pacific conference hosted by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. In my response, I will briefly summarize areas where the other participants and I are largely in agreement before addressing points of difference and disagreement. I identify three primary critiques. First, does the book sacrifice depth for breadth by covering too much ground and too many institutions? Second, does it make conceptual sense to describe Asia's regional architecture under a single, overarching framework? Third, is optimism for liberal internationalism misplaced in an era of "America first" and the "China dream"? I acknowledge the insights and shortcomings my colleagues note in their respective reviews, but in the "spirit of discussion" (to borrow Alice Ba's phrase), this response essay addresses their questions. A Holistic Approach to East Asian International Relations As Ralf Emmers notes, scholars too often treat East Asian international relations in a bifurcated manner. They tend to emphasize either multilateral processes and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or bilateralism and U.S. alliances. The former are more likely to incorporate the role of norms and nontraditional security issues, whereas the latter tend to focus on power and traditional security problems. Underlying this bifurcation is the regional subdivision between Southeast and Northeast Asia. There are sound theoretical and empirical reasons for creating such analytical distinctions in the study of East Asian international relations. Nevertheless, Asia's Regional Architecture was an attempt to examine East Asia as a whole. The roundtable participants generally agree that [End Page 143] more synergies exist across subregions and functional issues than is often acknowledged. The Trump administration's free and open Indo-Pacific concept and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) further reinforce the need for a "whole of Asia" approach. Both grand strategies identify linkages across subregions—including South Asia—and highlight the economic-security nexus across Asia and the Eurasian continent. For instance, a November 2019 report on the Indo-Pacific strategy released by the U.S. Department of State articulates how U.S. investments in energy, digital economy, and infrastructure support the goals of security, economic prosperity, and good governance in Indo-Pacific countries.1 Likewise, BRI, touted by Beijing as a massive overseas investment and economic development strategy, carries clear implications for regional security.2 In short, there is merit in investigating Asia's regional architecture from a whole-of-Asia perspective. My roundtable colleagues also welcome the use of historical institutionalism to uncover elements of change and continuity in the regional architecture. The application of historical institutionalism allows room for interests, institutions, and ideas to become a part of a nuanced framework explaining Asia's evolving regional architecture. In that sense, the book provides a post-paradigmatic approach to Asian international relations. Choosing Breadth over Depth Even when adopting a holistic approach to the region, researchers must still make trade-offs between depth and breadth in their analyses. Two of the reviewers (Ralf Emmers and Alice Ba) suggest that empirical breadth outweighs theoretical depth in the book. As Ba writes, although the book is "inclusive of nearly all of Asia's actors and a wide range of diverse arrangements," its analysis does not dig as deep into the specific processes and mechanisms that result in Asia's complex patchwork of institutions. Without understanding "cognitive priors," or the bureaucratic or normative [End Page 144] commitments of individuals shaping decisions, the argument leans on a minimalist understanding of historical institutionalism. Perhaps a deeper focus on a few key ASEAN-related organizations such as the ASEAN Regional Forum or the East Asia Summit may have provided a more succinct narrative while also spelling out in greater detail the mechanisms that produce continuity and change within Asia's regional architecture...

북한의 비핵화 여부와 동북아 국제관계 전망

북한의 비핵화 여부와 동북아 국제관계 전망

Sacred Mandates. Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan (ed. by T. Brook, M. van Walt van Praag and M. Boltjes). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2018, 277 pp.

Sacred Mandates. Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan (ed. by T. Brook, M. van Walt van Praag and M. Boltjes). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2018, 277 pp.

СТРАТЕГИЯ АДМИНИСТРАЦИИ Д. ТРАМПА В АЗИАТСКО-ТИХООКЕАНСКОМ РЕГИОНЕ

The article provides a comprehensive review of the U.S. policy in Asia during the Trump administration, which is conceptualized on the basis of the &ldquo;Indo-Pacific&rdquo; concept. The author notes that this concept originated from Japan and India, then was adopted by the Obama administration as the political framework for the U.S. pivot to Asia, and now has been reintroduced in Asia to serve Trump&rsquo;s &ldquo;America First&rdquo; guideline. Under the Trump administration, Washington sharply intensified its efforts to design the &ldquo;Indo-Pacific region&rdquo;: the four countries (the US, India, Japan, and Australia) openly support and advocate this concept, and to make it practical they have established multilateral political consultation mechanisms and developed military venues of quadrilateral cooperation. By this stage, as the author argues, the &ldquo;Indo-Pacific&rdquo; policy of the U.S. and its Asian allies shifted to be a blunt effort of block-building rather than an endeavor of establishing an inclusive regional cooperation mechanism. Moreover, the article interprets this block approach as growingly anti-China-centric. The U. S. is attempting to assemble a coalition to contain China in general, and particularly its implementation of its &ldquo;One Belt, One Road&rdquo; initiative. The author overviews the U.S. policy towards North Korea, economic cooperation in Asia, and relations with major Asian actors to build the ground for the main finding of the article: the &ldquo;Indo-Pacific&rdquo; block-building fundamentally contradicts the well-established Asian political tradition of a more inclusive and softer approach as is manifested in the core mechanisms of international relations in Asia, i. e. Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), East Asia Summit (EAS), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Hence, while many Asian states have concerns about the progressing Chinese might and ambitions, most of them &mdash; except the three countries (India, Japan, and Australia) &mdash; remain committed to these long-standing mechanisms, refraining from shifting to the &ldquo;Indo-Pacific&rdquo; block approach.