East Asian Policy Research Articles

Diffusion of Catching-up Industrialization Strategies: The Dynamics of East Asia's Policy Learning Process

AbstractThis paper provides an overview of catch-up industrialization strategies in East Asia over the past few decades, articulating a theoretical-conceptual change from Akamatsu's Flying Geese Model to a leapfrogging and path-creating catching-up model. Within this intellectual context, this study explores the economic, political and institutional conditions for effective implementation of catch-up strategies (management of state-created learning rents) in South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. It proposes a new analytical grid that summarizes the current research on China's catch-up industrialization, explicitly acknowledging China's arguably unique multi-pronged mixed-mode model. The strategic models discussed in this paper may provide policy lessons for other developing economies in Asia aspiring to follow the path of technology upgrading.

The Sustainable Development Clauses in Free Trade Agreements of the EU with Asian Countries: Perspectives for ASEAN?

The paper shows that the present EU GSP Plus arrangement is to be considered as showing the level of aspiration of the EU for future FTA partners regarding international rules of sustainability and good governance. Following its 2007 East Asia Policy Guidelines, the EU started negotiations on an interregional EU–ASEAN FTA and on the FTA with South Korea.The EU–Korea FTA and the European Commission's reactions to the consultant's advice on sustainability provide evidence of the negotiation strategy regarding the sustainability chapter in such FTAs with Asia. We evaluate this chapter of the EU–Singapore FTA, concluded in December 2012 against this background and find that they are highly similar. We conclude that the EU–Singapore FTA sustainable development provisions can be considered as a benchmark for the on-going FTA negotiations with Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, and as a baseline for such provisions in a future EU–ASEAN FTA.

RUSSIA AND EAST ASIA: NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

The article focuses on major dimensions, achievements, challenges and prospects of relations between Russia and East Asia. Strategic importance of the region is shaped by East Asia's increasing role in world politics and economy as well as by its appeal for Russia's modernization agenda. Russia's great power status rests upon the effectiveness of its East Asian policy and development model of Siberia and the Russian Far East. Russia's positions in East Asia have improved substantially over the 2000s. However, its involvement in regional economic interaction is still insignificant and Russia cannot be regarded as a full-fledged regional player in this domain. Russian-Chinese strategic partnership has been the axis of Russia's East Asian foreign policy, though overdependence on China threatens Russia's independent policy in the region and encourages Russia to search for ways to diversify its ties. Russia's national interests reside in multivector policy, aimed at developing substantive relations not only with China but also with Japan, South Korea, ASEAN (Vietnam in the first place) and India along with Russia's involvement in the resolution of Korean nuclear crisis. The rise of China and the US counter-offensive have resulted in a changing strategic environment in East Asia. A need for balancing between the US and China has brought about ASEAN countries' desire to welcome Russia as a "balancer" or an "honest player" in the region. It corresponds with Russia's course on playing a greater role in regional cooperation and integration. Russia's improving ties in political, economic, energy and security dimensions have the potential to contribute to the stability of the emerging polycentric regional order in East Asia and development of Russia's regions of Siberia and the Far East.

Coping with the Global Financial Crises: institutional and ideational sources of Taiwan's economic resiliency

Over the last two decades, Taiwan has weathered two global financial crises: the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 and the sub-prime loan crisis of 2008–2009. Each time the island's economy emerged from the crisis relatively unscathed. Many of the elements that constitute Taiwan's economic resilience have been fostered through entrenched institutional arrangements and established policy orientations over a long period. Taiwan managed to retain the bulk of these long-running sources of economic resilience despite the tremendous external pressures exerted by neo-liberal policy advocates to dismantle these ‘out-dated’ policy thinking and practices in the name of reform during the decade-long interval between the two crises. Taiwan was able to cope with the 2008–2009 global financial crisis thanks also to a more enabling regional environment created through stronger cooperation among Asian economies and under a new awakening among the East Asian policy makers.

Renewable energy and East Asia's new developmentalism: towards a low carbon future?

East Asia's renewable energy (RE) sector has grown faster than any other region's since the mid-2000s. It is argued that renewables formed an integral part of the region's new industrial policies and new developmentalism, which are founded on new configured forms of state capacity shaped in response to various challenges, primarily climate change, energy security, globalisation and global neo-liberalism. By studying the recent progress of East Asia's RE sector, we gain useful insights into these key developments in East Asia's political economy and the region's prospects for transition towards low carbon development. This analysis considers how and why different approaches to RE policy emerged in East Asia, to what extent the promotion and expansion of East Asia's RE sector is part of a new industrial policy paradigm and new developmentalism, and what the study of East Asian policies on promoting renewable energy can tell us about the region's broader approach to low carbon development. Although the promotion of renewable energy has been a fundamental part of East Asia's recent macro-development plans and new developmentalism generally, these same plans suggest that East Asian states will simultaneously continue to significantly promote high carbon and ecologically damaging industrial activities, thus undermining the low carbon credentials of East Asia's new developmentalism. The path to meaningful low carbon development will be very long and will take many decades to achieve. However, it is contended that by maintaining and improving their various forms of state capacity over time, the East Asian states will be well positioned to sustain the significant growth of their renewable energy sectors and thereby further strengthen the low carbon development orientation of their new industrial policies, macro-development plans and strategic economic thinking.

Does the elephant dance?: contemporary Indian foreign policy

Acknowledgments Abbreviations Foreword 1. Introduction 2. History: A Vital Foundation of India's International Relations 3. India's Contemporary Security Challenges: More Internal than External? 4. India's Economy: Its Global Calling Card 5. India and its Neighbours 6. The Sino-Indian Relationship: Can Two Tigers Share a Mountain? 7. India-USA Relations: The Shock of the New 8. India's West Asia Policy: Delicate Manoeuvres 9. India's East and South-East Asia Policy: Catching Up 10. India's Relations with Europe and Russia: Fading Glory? 11. The Evolution of Indian Multilateralism: From High Ground to High Table 12. Conclusions Bibliography Index

“One Drop of Oil, One Drop of Blood”: The United States and the Petroleum Problem in Wartime China, 1937-1945

In 1931, Japan occupied Manchuria and seemed intent on conquering China. Because Japan was devoid of petroleum, planners turned to exploration in the Western Pacific. In China, mobilization for a military invasion and preparations for economic survival made control of petroleum supplies more urgent than ever. As Irvine H. Anderson reminds us in The Standard-Vacuum Oil Company and United States East Asian Policy, 1933-1941, Standard-Vacuum, Shell, and the Anglo-American diplomatic corps accelerated their close cooperation especially after Japan created monopolies of the economies of Manchuria and North China, which violated the traditional principles of American Open Door Policy. However, the American de facto embargo policy and the Japanese resolve to seize the necessary supplies in the Dutch Indies made it inevitable that American companies would become involved in the formulation and execution of American policy both before and after Pearl Harbor. Building on Anderson’s extraordinary research, this article focuses on the petroleum problem in China and the American response, especially of the State Department and Foreign Service officers, during 1937-45.

The Evolution of Russia's Foreign Policy, Ideologies and Strategies in Northeast Asia: A Study of Russo-Korean Relations

Russia faced a lost decade in its East Asia policy due to Yeltsin's “divide and rule” policy-making strategy, an ill-coordinated and ideologized policy agenda. This hampered Russian influence in Northeast Asia (NEA) and allowed the United States to consolidate its primacy in the region for two decades. After Putin's recentralization of NEA foreign policy unfolded, Russia re-emerged as an active player in many regional affairs, guided by its regional strategies. These strategies are often influenced by multiple factors. Russo-Korean relations and the North Korean nuclear crisis offered a critical policy window for Russia to reassert its great power aspiration in NEA and redevelop the Russian Far East (RFE). This article argues the evolution of Russia's foreign policy ideologies shaped by its leaders remains the cause of fluctuation of Russian power in NEA. These ideologies both encourage and frustrate the realization of the regional strategies and interests related to Russia's great power aspiration. The n...

International Rivalry in Korea and Russia’s East Asian Policy in the Late Nineteenth Century

International Rivalry in Korea and Russia’s East Asian Policy in the Late Nineteenth Century

Presidential Power, the Panay Incident, and the Defeat of the Ludlow Amendment

Presidential Power, the Panay Incident, and the Defeat of the Ludlow Amendment

Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy - By Russell D. Buhite

Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy - By Russell D. Buhite

Homeownership in South Korea: Examining Sector Underdevelopment

Despite government emphasis on home purchase and four decades of extensive house building, levels of owner-occupation in South Korea remain relatively modest. This paper examines Korean homeownership policy development, identifying key reasons for the limited growth: the underdevelopment of housing finance; unproductive government intervention on property speculation; ineffective tax support for low-income home purchase; and the structure of the rental sector. Korean housing policy is characteristically supply driven, which has expanded housing stock but distorted distribution, increased speculation and polarised housing wealth. This paper considers the underdevelopment of demand-side policies as the underlying failure in the sustainable and equitable expansion of homeownership. It also implicates housing more centrally in East Asian policy regime divergence.

Review: Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy, by Russell D. Buhite

Book Review| February 01 2010 Review: Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy, by Russell D. Buhite Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy. By Russell D. Buhite. (Lanham, Md., Rowman and Littlefield, 2008. xiv + 190 pp. $70 cloth, $26.95 paper) Marc Gallicchio Marc Gallicchio Villanova University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Pacific Historical Review (2010) 79 (1): 156–157. https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2010.79.1.156 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Marc Gallicchio; Review: Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy, by Russell D. Buhite. Pacific Historical Review 1 February 2010; 79 (1): 156–157. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2010.79.1.156 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentPacific Historical Review Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2010 by the Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

A Study on the Russia's East Asian Policy during the End of the 19th Century -Centered on the Investigation of the Mt. Baekdusan

A Study on the Russia's East Asian Policy during the End of the 19th Century -Centered on the Investigation of the Mt. Baekdusan

Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy (review)

Reviewed by: Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy Michael Schaller Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy. By Russell D. Buhite. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. ISBN 978-0 7425-4426-0. MacArthur chronology. Illustrations. Map. Notes. Bibliographical essay. Index. Pp. xiii, 188. $26.95. Russell Buhite, the author of several respected studies of U.S. politics, diplomacy, and war in the twentieth century, has written a short, spirited, and persuasive study of General Douglas MacArthur's long career in Asia. Building on several scholarly monographs, Buhite demonstrates how the General's assignments in the pre-World War II Philippine Islands, the Southwest Pacific Theater during the Second World War, Occupied Japan, and during the Korean War all served in large part as stages in a form of political theater in which one man starred. The (hostile) critics usually took the form of presidents and other (invariably rival) commanders, but MacArthur's target audience remained the American public. Like several other recent biographers and military historians, Buhite finds more to criticize than admire in the General's various performances. A barely adequate military strategist, MacArthur tended to win battles in which he had an overwhelming advantage and lose those in which he faced a determined enemy on more or less equal terms. Although he considered himself a grand geopolitical theorist, most of MacArthur's pronouncements on these subjects sound either obvious or foolish. In short, Buhite concludes, there was a good deal more stagecraft than statecraft in the General's long years of service. Buhite stresses his intent to write a straightforward military and diplomatic study. Yet he, like biographers before him, simply cannot avoid putting the General on the psychologist's couch. This makes sense and Buhite offers several compelling observations about how the General's ego, insecurities, resentments, and narcissism influenced many of his professional actions. For example, commenting on MacArthur's mishandling of the 1932 "Bonus March," Buhite observes that "paranoia was the quality most revealing of his worldview. He could not make friends. He wanted admirers rather than friends, so he sustained himself by making enemies" (p. 20). MacArthur's "overweening ego," Buhite insists, went far beyond the need for adulation. Rather, he must be seen as the victim of a "disorder referred to by psychologists as a 'narcissistic personality disorder'." Buhite outlines the definition of this affliction and persuasively, in my view, correlates MacArthur's behavior to it. He does so without being nasty or petty, more in sorrow than in anger. His evaluation coincides with that of Gerald Wilkinson, a British liaison officer who served with MacArthur in Australia in 1943. In an appraisal of the General directed to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Wilkinson wrote: General directed to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Wilkinson wrote: He is shrewd, selfish, proud, remote, highly strung and vastly vain. He has imagination, self-confidence, physical courage and charm, but no humor about himself and no regard for truth, and is [End Page 675] unaware of these defects. He mistakes his emotions and ambitions for principles. With more moral depth he would be a great man; as it is, he is a near miss which may be worse than a mile…His main ambition would be to end the war as Pan-American Hero in the form of generalissimo of all Pacific theaters… With the large exception of Occupied Japan and the early conduct of the Korean War, it is difficult to find a situation where MacArthur actually set policy or had much influence on policymakers. After his dismissal in April 1951, and despite the initial outpouring of emotion on his behalf, MacArthur really did "fade away." Buhite offers a balanced, accessible critical history of the General's life in Asia and the Pacific that should be especially useful for students in military and diplomatic history classes. Michael Schaller University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona Copyright © 2009 The Society for Military History

Globalization, Inequality, and Local‐level Dynamics: Indonesia and the Philippines*

Subnational disparities and center–region relations are increasingly important issues in both the development economics literature and East Asian policy circles. Almost all developing countries in East Asia are actively decentralizing power and resources from the center. Analytically, there is growing interest in spatial economics, arising out of the fusion of economics and geography. This paper examines these issues with reference to Indonesia and the Philippines. Both countries are well suited to such a study: they are the two largest archipelagic nations in the world, they both feature great subnational diversity, and they have both adopted major decentralization programs, in similar circumstances. We conclude that, in aggregate, there have been no major changes in regional inequality in either country, although this conclusion is sensitive to the selection of economic indicators. In general, the regions that are the best connected to the global economy have grown more rapidly.

East Asia Policy of Russia before First Sino Japanese War

East Asia Policy of Russia before First Sino Japanese War

Korea’s New Administration and Challenges for China’s Relations with the Korean Peninsula

ASIANPERSPECTIVE, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2008, pp. 173-183. Commentary KOREA S NEW ADMINISTRATION AND CHALLENGES FOR CHINA'S RELATIONS WITH THE KOREAN PENINSULA* Ren Xiao In a region as fluid and complex as Northeast Asia, Lee Myung-bak's election to the presidency of the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) will prove to be quite significant. The return of a conservative leader is an important change for Korean politics, and a new factor for regional relationships as well. Dur­ ing the previous two administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, ROK relations with China kept growing rapidly. Both these presidents adopted a "sunshine" policy of reconcilia­ tion, cooperation, and peace toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea), especially against the backdrop of the reemerging Korean nuclear crisis. Chinese and South Korean policies largely converged on engaging with Pyongyang and inducing it to denuclearize and to open up. That approach to a great extent helped soften the Bush administra­ tion's hard-line stance and hostile policy toward the DPRK. Except for the (unnecessary) controversy over the Koguryo issue, a question of ancient history, that somehow disrupted the ChinaROK relationship during 2004-2005, other aspects of the relation­ * An earlier version of this commentary was presented at the international conference, "The New South Korean Administration's East Asia Policy and the Korean Peninsula," which was jointly organized by The NEAR Founda­ tion and the U.S.-Korea Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Seoul, February 13, 2008. 174 Ren Xiao ship mostly went very well. With a new Lee administration, will that trend continue? Will Seoul and Beijing continue to work together well to denuclearize the Korean peninsula? The Bilateral Tango China is, relatively speaking, unfamiliar with the entrepre­ neur-turned politician, Lee Myung-bak, who is a former CEO of Hyundai Construction and Engineering and a former mayor of Seoul. For China, what is at stake is a smooth transition of rela­ tions with the ROK under a new Korean administration, with the maintenance of continuity and stability. In mid-January 2008, Bei­ jing dispatched Wang Yi, the number-two person in its foreign ministry, to Seoul in the capacity of special envoy of the Chinese government to meet with President-elect Lee and his presidential transition team. The chief purpose of Wang's trip was to become familiar with Lee and his policy thinking as well as to make preparations for a good post-Roh bilateral relationship. Wang Yi passed on President Hu Jintao's congratulations and greetings to Lee. Likewise, President-elect Lee sent his spe­ cial envoy, former chairwoman of the Grand National Party Park Geun-hye, to Beijing. She carried a letter from Lee to Hu. The Chinese side received her well and President Hu met her in person. The visits were in hope of paving the way for an orderly transition of the China-ROK relationship. China and South Korea are two countries that are becoming increasingly interdependent. This complex interdependence has developed over the past sixteen years since the formal establish­ ment of diplomatic relations in 1992, years that witnessed con­ spicuous growth in every aspect of their relations. In 2004, China overtook the United States and Japan and became the ROK's largest trading partner, while the ROK became China's thirdbiggest trading partner. According to South Korean government statistics, in 2006 the two-way trade volume exceeded $134 bil­ lion, a tremendous growth from $6.3 billion in 1992. In contrast, ROK trade with Japan and the United States was $78.5 billion and $76.8 billion respectively in 2006. Meanwhile, there are approximately 30,000 Korean compa­ nies that have invested in China. Their total investment reached Korea's New Administration and Challenges for China's Relations 175 $35 billion in April 2007. The two governments have set an objec­ tive for bilateral trade to reach $200 billion by 2012T Presently, each week there are approximately 800 flights between six South Korean cities and thirty Chinese cities. All these developments show that the relationship has reached such a degree that nei­ ther side can afford...

Japan's East Asia Policy in The Postwar and The Subject for Regional Cooperation - Centering on the changes of cognition and policy -

Japan's East Asia Policy in The Postwar and The Subject for Regional Cooperation - Centering on the changes of cognition and policy -

Shahid Yusuf, M. Anjum Altaf, and Kaoru Nabeshima, eds. Global Change and East Asian Policy Initiatives. New York: Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 2004. Pp. xx+452. $30.00 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsShahid Yusuf, M. Anjum Altaf, and Kaoru Nabeshima, eds. Global Change and East Asian Policy Initiatives. New York: Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 2004. Pp. xx+452. $30.00 (paper).Shujiro UrataShujiro UrataWaseda University Search for more articles by this author Waseda UniversityPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 56, Number 1October 2007 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/520567 Views: 7Total views on this site © 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.