Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- List Of Abbreviations -- Introduction And Overview -- European Perspectives -- The WTO, Governments and Global Business: Who Decides the Shape of International Trade Relations? -- Deepening of Multilateral Integration in the World Trade Organization -- The EU's New Strategies Towards Emerging Asia and Latin America -- Asian Perspectives -- The Political Economy of 'East Asian' Cooperation: Towards Better Regional and Global Governance -- Japan and Latin America

AbstractThe reshaping of the domestic social, political, and economic structures all over East Asia takes place in the context of a restructuring of the international (security) order. Despite China's increasing acceptance of international institutions and regimes the divergence of vital security interests of the United States (US) and Japan vis-a-vis those of China has raised the specter of increased polarization. This article will seek to answer the question of whether China is about to consciously challenge the power of the US and its allies not only in Asia, but also in the Greater Middle East (GME), mainly through China's impact on the economics, political, and social structure of those countries rather than through rivalry in the field of military power. China's conceptualization of the current global order is also shaped by historical memories of an age in which China was merely an object of Great Power politics which also directly affected the wider region, including the heartland of Eurasia, Southeast Asia, and in particular Japan and the Korean peninsula with their direct impact on China's security equation. To some Chinese strategists the Indian Ocean and countries of the GME have acquired a vital importance not only with regard to the supply of raw materials (including those obtained from Africa). Continuing Western strategic dominance in this large area would also have an important negative impact on China's global strategic position. For the first time in its history, China has become critically dependent on the acquisition of foreign resources—raw materials, investment and technology, as well as earnings from exports. China's economic activities in near neighbors such as Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, ailand, and Iran are also strategically important due to the impact on domestic and international politics of these countries. The US tends to interpret such influence in terms of Chinese power projection. This article interprets the linkages between domestic events and international strategies on the network of global (security) relations in terms of neogeopolitics rather than mainstream US scholarship.

The term 'comprehensive security' was first used by the late Japanese prime minister Ohira, but the concept as such can be traced back to Japanese thinking on security during the fifties. Its meaning goes far beyond requirements of military defence against a particular 'enemy', and stresses the need to take into account other aspects vital to national stability; food, energy, environment, communication and social security. While not denying the importance of military security, it explicitly encompasses a wide range of other aspects: the search for environmental security, for instance, which requires cooperation with other countries (including hypothetical 'enemies'). The concept stresses the need for confidence building methods as a requirement for its attainment and pertains to issues such as preventive diplomacy, energy security, second order cybernetics, greater transparancy of international financial markets as means to enhance overall stability. It is a notion that goes beyond simplifications such as 'us' and 'them'. Since the word has been first coined in Japan, it has caught on in other Asian countries as well. It has become clear that the concept is particularly suited for a continent where large and powerful countries such as China, Korea, Japan and Indonesia are unlikely to enter into close cooperation along the model of the European Union. In short, in this volume a team of scholars from Asia, Europe and the United States provide clear analyses of issues vital to Asian politics: an important contribution to one of the key issues of contemporary (Asian) politics

This is an examination of "Comprehensive Security" as a policy that goes beyond the requirements of military defence against a particular "enemy" to stress the need to take into account other aspects vital to national stability: food, energy, environment, communication and social security.