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This book offers careful glimpse from the lenses of selected case studies of major counties in East Asia, namely China and Japan to obtain insights as well as lessons regarding their perspective sustainable cities development. Urban sustainability is the pillar domain for achieving overall sustainability. East Asia has the world most populous countries and cities; therefore, it is of great importance to understand, analyze, and assess the sustainable urban development trends and paradigms in an East Asia setting so as to better guide the future development of sustainable cities in the region. The outcomes of this book are policy-relevant consultations to key stakeholders from various walks of sustainability studies

Introduction -- Review of literature -- Eco-city development in china: international perspective and comparison -- Low-carbon city development in china: lessons and references from other countires -- Understanding smart-city developments: a new framework and its application in japan -- New evaluation approach for sustainable cities: from smart city concept to indicator weighting -- Conclusions.

The successful negotiation of the Paris Agreement, and its subsequent signing and adoption in 2016, marked a new landmark in global climate governance. However, the viability of the agreement was questioned particularly after the United States announced its withdrawal in 2017, pointing to certain institutional deficiencies in the overall agreement. The signing of the agreement would not have been possible without the initial joint commitment of both China and the United States, the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters. Despite China's official claims of steadfast compliance with the agreement, the country's capacity to fulfil its commitment remains unclear. This study aims to first determine the constitutional deficiencies of the agreement that spurred America's withdrawal and the impacts. Second, it evaluates China's compliance capacity in the post-Paris Agreement era without America's involvement. The outcomes of this study provide some useful insights into preventing other countries from following the US example and better understanding China's position and capacity in keeping climate governance on the right track. (China/GIGA)

In the complex world of international negotiations, nation-states often navigate a spectrum of political relationships, from alliances and partnerships to competition and rivalry. Despite their diverse backgrounds and interests, the BRICS countries collectively constitute a significant proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions. Drawing upon the principles of neoliberal institutionalism, this study delves into the origins of the BRICS cooperation mechanism and its impact on climate cooperation among its member states. Our analysis traces the climate policies of BRICS nations since the inception of the UNFCCC in 1992, taking into consideration factors such as their level of economic development, environmental vulnerability, and the broader international political context. We argue that these three factors primarily shape the dynamics of alliance and partnership within BRICS regarding climate governance, although underlying competition may also influence collaborative efforts. This study aims to stimulate further theoretical discourse on the formation of political alliances within the context of global climate governance.

The geographical location of Yemen holds significant importance, as it offers various strategic, political, and economic benefits to regional and international stakeholders with competing interests. Yemen's position in the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, and other strategic islands gives it a direct vantage point on the Strait of Bab al-Mandab, which serves as a key gateway connecting the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, thus controlling major trade and oil routes between the East and the West. Consequently, Yemen has become a battleground for competing regional powers seeking to assert their dominance. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been vying for control over Yemen's strategic location to consolidate their regional influence and superiority. This article aims to examine the strategic importance of Yemen and the ambitions of Saudi Arabia and Iran that underline their interventions in Yemen.

AbstractOver the past one and a half centuries, urbanization has coincided with industrialization and globalization. The business as usual mode of urban development has proven unsustainable, and the consensus of developing new paradigms toward more sustainable trajectories has been reached. This paper reviews and identifies the most prominent forms of sustainable urban development, encompassing theories of urban frameworks, major definitions and concepts and historical developments in the East Asian context. Three major trends are assessed, including garden cities (and eco‐cities), low‐carbon cities and smart cities, which identify each main phase of sustainable urbanization in the East Asian context.

As non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assume incrementally important roles in global environmental governance, literature regarding their functions also multiplies. Studies are available about their features, structural advantages or impacts. However, very few have sufficiently explained what makes them tick in the international system as non-state actors. In this article, we argue that NGOs' important position in global governance lies in its authority. We build our analysis on sociological institutionalism and the principal–agent models, arguing that NGOs are independent and autonomous with both inherent authority and granted authority by sovereign states or inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). It is through this authority that NGOs could function independently and autonomously in global governance instead of being the affiliated or appendant actors of parties. To shed some new light on understanding NGOs in the international system from a theoretical perspective, we employ cases from environmental governance domain as evidence for illustration.