Suchergebnisse

Since the US identified North Korea as part of the "axis of evil", the forecast for North-South Korean relations has worsened. However, this article suggest that contrary to popular opinion, the advent of the six-party talks may prove surprisingly conductive to the improvement of inter-Korean relations. Three tactical moves seem currently open to North Korea: threatening the use of force in an effort to stall international pressure; attempting to mend diplomatic relations with the US; or the initiation of closer ties with Seoul, with the good offices provided by Beijing. The last option may prove to be the best from a North Korean point of view and may be the first step towards achieving the longed-for Korean reunification. (Asian J Pol Sci/DÜI)

The Chinese term 'local protectionism', refers to China's uncooperative local governments and pertains to the study of China's central-local relations. This internal issue of China's state structure has attracted the attention of WTO scholars with China's WTO accession. At the time China joined the WTO, many scholars expressed their concern that China's compliance with WTO obligations might be hindered by hard-to-control local governments. However, this research topic of the interface between China's local governments and China's WTO obligations has not been followed up by scholars due to the lack of research data. This thesis looks outside the box and develops an innovative approach to study how WTO disputes prompt the Chinese central government to discipline uncooperative local governments and combat local protectionism.In conducting such an innovative research approach, this thesis combines two domains of study: China's interactions with the WTO Dispute Settlement System (DSS) and China's central-local relations. The first study domain finds that China has extensively reformed its domestic governance to implement WTO judicial rulings. This background view reveals that China's domestic governance is subject to WTO's influence, and builds the foundation for understanding China's internal central-local governance change under the impact of WTO disputes. The second study domain reviews how the Chinese central government combats local protectionism. This domain of study identifies that, China's central-local dynamics are informal and political, rather than formal and legal. Within China's vague constitutional framework, the Chinese central government primarily checks local protectionism through political interaction with provincial governments.This innovative combination of two domains of study, China's interactions with the WTO DSS and China's central-local relations, mutually establishes a pattern of international-national-subnational governance impact chain in China. The finding of this pattern develops the research topic on the interface between China's local governments and China's WTO obligations from a unique perspective. By identifying central-provincial political dynamics in selected WTO case studies, this study analyses Chinese central government's voluntary decision to combat local protectionism under pressure arising from WTO disputes, and demonstrates WTO's far-reaching influence on China's internal governance repercussion.

The notorious violation of the human rights of ethnics in Myanmar has attracted the attention of the international community. Such abuse is threatening the South East Asia peace and security. This article unravels the legal and historical nexus between the Rohingya and Myanmar, supporting their claim for the rights of citizenship. This article suggests a tripartite model of which involves cooperation between the government of Myanmar, ASEAN and, the United Nations. The collective efforts from these three parties are vital to ensure a change in the crisis. Keywords: ASEAN, Human rights, Rohingya, United Nations. eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2302

Although foreign policy choices, especially on security questions, are often treated as autonomous state responses to international pressures, these events & conditions do not affect society in a uniform way. International conditions influence policy, but their implications depend on the interests of the domestic political faction controlling the state. Because decisions about military strategy & force structure are closely linked to the international balance of power, they offer an especially demanding test of this argument. This article offers evidence that Republican & Democratic presidents systematically differed on the allocation of resources within the Pentagon during the Cold War. Republicans directed spending toward strategic forces, while Democrats stressed conventional forces. Furthermore, although Soviet gains in relative nuclear capabilities influenced Democrats' decisions about strategic forces, they had little or no influence on Republican choices. These differences make sense in light of research on the two parties' societal constituencies. 3 Tables, 3 Figures, 70 References. Adapted from the source document.

What has shaped contemporary discourse on Japan's comfort women issue? During the last twenty-five years, civic groups in both Japan and South Korea have made significant efforts to publicize the issue within the international community, hoping to narrow the disparity between the position of the international community and that of the Japanese government. Thus far, however, Japan's official position has shown little change. Why has international pressure on Japan failed? By focusing on the relationship between international pressure and the formation of Japan's discourse on the comfort women issue, this paper shows how outside pressure led to a domestic backlash among conservatives in Japan, resulting in the failure to institutionalize apologetic discourse within Japanese society. This study will provide important insights on how democratic countries can sometimes resist strong external pressure to conform to international norms. (Pac Aff/GIGA)