Kingdom Relations Research Articles

УКРАЇНСЬКЕ ПИТАННЯ У ЗОВНІШНІЙ ПОЛІТИЦІ ВЕЛИКОЇ БРИТАНІЇ В УМОВАХ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ АГРЕСІЇ

The article analyses the impact of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the development of international relations in the context of the armed conflict in Ukraine. The determination of the political course of the UK is the starting point of the research, which determines the following analysis of its foreign policy on Ukraine. The UK's role and strategy in relations with Ukraine and other countries during the conflict are also explored. The article deals with UK contribution to the resolution of the crisis and its support for Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. The article also analyses the impact of the UK on the position of other major international actors such as the United States of America, the European Union in their relations with Ukraine. The United Kingdom's relations with Japan, Australia, Canada, and individual members of the European Union (Germany, France, Poland, Hungary) are analysed in the light of the armed conflict in Ukraine and joint initiatives to support and de-escalate the situation. The article analyses various aspects of the UK support for Ukraine, including diplomatic initiatives with both individual states and international organisations, military assistance, humanitarian aid, comprehensive sanctions, and political support at various levels. The possible consequences of the UK influence on the future development of international relations in the region and possible ways of further cooperation between the UK and Ukraine in resolving the armed conflict is also considered in the article. The article deals with the UK's policy in the UN (the Security Council and the UN General Assembly) and its efforts to reform the structure of the organisation in order to exclude the possibility of the RF's influence on it. The country's policy in the Council of Europe, UN organisations, the ICJ and the ICC is another key point in the article in the light of the Russian Federation's responsibility for the situation in Ukraine. Close cooperation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with NATO and the European Union is also assessed in the article with the aim of determining the actual level of political agreements between the parties to overcome the current situation in Ukraine. Some peculiarities of the regional policy of the UK determine the level of support of separate states to the UK directly and to Ukraine indirectly. The key aspects of the UK’s influence on the development of international relations in the context of the armed conflict in Ukraine are substantiated and contribute to a better understanding of the UK's role in regional and global politics. Keywords: Great Britain, foreign policy, Russian-Ukrainian war, Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia by Mamoru Akamine

Reviewed by: The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia by Mamoru Akamine Tze M. Loo (bio) The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia. By Mamoru Akamine; translated by Lina Terrell and edited by Robert Huey. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2017. xii, 200 pages. $62.00. The English-language scholarship on Okinawan history, while populated with specialized monographs and edited volumes, has few accessible historical surveys that provide broad overviews of the islands' complex history. Mamoru Akamine's work translated into English by Lina Terrell as The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia and edited by Robert Huey fills this gap in several important ways. Focusing on Okinawa's history when the islands were the Ryukyu Kingdom, the book emphasizes the importance of the kingdom's relationship with China, underscores the kingdom's dynamic culture and economic success that came from its place as a "cornerstone" in the "East Asia Trade Sphere," and casts it as an active political actor, highly protective of its autonomy, that was relatively successful in negotiating daunting challenges in geopolitical contexts it had little control over. Japanese-language surveys of Okinawa's history commonly cast the Gusuku period as the first step in the development of the islands' political culture and structure. Akamine too starts his story here but gives the period added significance by suggesting that two important characteristics of the kingdom were formed at this time. First, the joining of the "northern Ryukyu cultural sphere" (with its links to Japanese Jōmon and Yayoi culture) with the "southern Ryukyu cultural sphere" (with its connections to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and Polynesia) to form the "Greater Ryukyu Culture" laid the foundation for the Ryukyu Kingdom's cultural dynamism and openness to diverse cultural influences (p. 12). Second, the economic vitality of the Song dynasty led to the formation of the "East Asian Trade Sphere," and the Ryukyu Islands took their place in this extensive trade network as one of its pivotal, if more modestly sized, centers. Given that the islands' economic prosperity is often linked to the Ryukyu Kingdom's participation in China's tribute system, Akamine's argument [End Page 418] shifts the islands' emergence as an economic center to this earlier period. At the same time, his attention to early trade networks foregrounds the central role the economic sphere plays in the kingdom's emergence. Chapters 2 and 3 cover the kingdom's quick and dramatic ascent to its position as a "cornerstone" in the East Asia Trade Sphere. Central to its rise was its close relationship with Ming China enacted through the tribute system, which Akamine suggests the Ryukyu Islands joined willingly and quickly (pp. 22–23), demonstrating their astute recognition of the significance of Chinese power. For Akamine, the Ryukyu Islands' connection to China is of the utmost importance. In addition to providing the structural conditions for the kingdom to accumulate economic power, Chinese influence on the kingdom was profound. An overseas Chinese community settled in Naha and went on to play key roles in the kingdom's politics as Ryukyu leaders depended on community members for assistance with the tribute trade; Chinese merchants took advantage of the trade opportunities the islands offered, and flourished. This relationship also had influence beyond trade as the kingdom played a part in China's strategy to deal with pirates on its coast (p. 30), its members serving as personnel at Chinese military fortifications, sources of information, and liaisons with Japan, and supplying military goods (p. 31). For its part, China recognized the Ryukyu Kingdom's value and gave the kingdom preferential treatment within the tribute system. Akamine's representation of the kingdom's relationship with China as a mutually beneficial coexistence of a larger power with a small polity is noteworthy for how it contrasts with the association the Ryukyu Kingdom came to have with mainland Japan. Akamine points to a certain level of "Japanization" of the kingdom as the frequent influx of Japanese people and goods introduced Japanese cultural forms such as Buddhism to the islands (p. 40). Yet, by situating the kingdom's relations with Japan within the larger context of the Ryukyu Kingdom's involvement with China and its extensive...

Saudi Clerics and Shiʿa Islam

Saudi Clerics and Shiʿa Islam

The UK,The Council of Europe and Turkey's International Human Rights Obligations in a State of Emergency: Submission to Foreign Affairs Committee: United Kingdom's Relations with Turkey

This report argues that the UK should urge Turkey to ensure that its state of emergency declared under Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; the Convention) remains temporary; that the emergency measures taken by Turkey following this declaration remain proportionate to the exigencies of the situation; and that none of the non-derogable rights of the Convention, including the prohibition of the death penalty should be infringed upon. As the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR; the Court) has been extremely deferential to Contracting Parties as to the existence of a state of emergency within its jurisdiction, it is incumbent upon the other Contracting Parties to the Convention to use political and diplomatic ties to ensure its temporariness.Secondly, this report argues that the legitimacy of the ECtHR and its judgments have been undermined through the lack of implementation of the UK’s and other Contracting Parties’ Convention obligations and through political rhetoric attacking the ECtHR. There is evidence that this defiance of Court judgments is encouraging other Contracting Parties to do likewise. This trend is particularly worrying in light of Turkey’s declaration of a state of emergency and suggestions that it could reintroduce the death penalty in clear violation of Protocol 13 of the ECHR. This report therefore urges the UK to take positive steps in vindicating its international human rights obligations under the ECHR and avoid political rhetoric that may damage the legitimacy of the ECtHR.

Some Aspects of the United Kingdom's Relations with Former Colonies: the Australia Case

Some Aspects of the United Kingdom's Relations with Former Colonies: the Australia Case