The Blind Men, the Elephant, and Regional Order in Northeast Asia: Towards a New Conceptualization

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-531
Author(s):  
SAM-SANG JO
Keyword(s):  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Empirical World ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Northeast Asian ◽  
The Rise Of China

AbstractNo theory seems to describe accurately and explain competently the new, unusual, and idiosyncratic Northeast Asian regional order phenomenon. It is because Northeast Asian specialists like the blind men have seen only one of the parts of the ‘Elephant’ or a part of what is taking place in Northeast Asia. This paper attempts to employ a new, more appropriate, more productive analytical tool to understand and navigate efficiently the Northeast Asian regional order. The main objective of this paper is ‘the rise of China and Northeast Asian regional order’, what it is and what is taking place in the empirical world when we say that something we call ‘the rise of China and Northeast Asian regional order’ is taking place.

scholarly journals The Rise of China and Its Implications to Northeast Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-97
Author(s):  
Wai Ting
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Status ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
External Behavior

AbstractThe rise of China has aroused heated debates on whether the country would become the “revisionist” power in challenging the supreme position of the “status quo” power, the United States. This paper aims to examine whether the rise of China would, firstly, empower Beijing to solve the long-term crisis in the Korean Peninsula, and secondly, complicates the picture in solving the difficult historical and political issues in Sino-Japanese relations. It is argued that the increasing economic and military capabilities of China are not instrumental in fostering significant changes within North Korea and in monitoring the external behavior of its leaders. A more nationalistic China which lacks soft power also hinders a favorable solution to the challenges of Sino-Japanese relations.

Conclusions to the Book

2020 ◽  
pp. 294-296
Author(s):  
Barry Buzan ◽  
Evelyn Goh
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
The Third ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Asian History ◽  
Northeast Asian

This concluding chapter to the whole volume returns to the overarching purpose of trying to stimulate rethinking of Sino-Japanese alienation. It pulls together the three Parts of the book, showing how the first two Parts provide a wider base of empirical evidence for rethinking how the history problem in Northeast Asia is currently understood and pursued, and how the third Part unpacks the ‘history problem’ variable in its broader geopolitical/historical order contexts. This chapter explains how the book provides ways to conceptually, politically, and normatively debate and reconceive the Northeast Asian history problem and Japan and China’s vital roles in the regional order.

The Mainland minus One

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharin Dalpino
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
China And India ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Rise Of China

The ancient cultural threads that linked Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar—the so-called Indianized states in Southeast Asia—have long since frayed. Shifts beginning in the 1990s signaled yet another new regional order, which is still being formed. The end of the Cold War, the Cambodian peace agreement and the subsequent enlargement of ASEAN, the rise of China and India, a modest renewal of U.S. interest in Southeast Asia, and Myanmar’s reform process have forged new relations with old adversaries but also created new (or renewed) tensions. This chapter examines the transformation of the foreign relations of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar in this new regional environment.

Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
The Rise Of China

This book demonstrates how structural and domestic variables influence how East Asian states adjust their strategy in light of the rise of China, including how China manages its own emerging role as a regional great power. The book notes that the shifting regional balance of power has fueled escalating tensions in East Asia and suggests that adjustment challenges are exacerbated by the politics of policymaking. International and domestic pressures on policymaking are reflected in maritime territorial disputes and in the broader range of regional security issues created by the rise of China. Adjusting to power shifts and managing a new regional order in the face of inevitable domestic pressure, including nationalism, is a challenging process. Both the United States and China have had to adjust to China's expanded capabilities. China has sought an expanded influence in maritime East Asia; the United States has responded by consolidating its alliances and expanding its naval presence in East Asia. The region's smaller countries have also adjusted to the rise of China. They have sought greater cooperation with China, even as they try to sustain cooperation with the United States. As China continues to rise and challenge the regional security order, the chapters consider whether the region is destined to experience increased conflict and confrontation.

Rethinking Sino-Japanese Alienation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Buzan ◽  
Evelyn Goh
Keyword(s):  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Great Power ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Global View ◽  
Historical Contextualization ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Northeast Asian

Bitterly contested memories of war, colonization and empire among Japan, China, and Korea have increasingly threatened regional order and security over the three decades since the 1980s. In Sino-Japanese relations, identity, territory, and power pull together in a particularly lethal direction, generating dangerous tensions in both geopolitical and memory rivalries. Buzan and Goh explore a new approach to dealing with this history problem, first, by constructing a more balanced and global view of their shared history, and second, by sketching out the possibilities for a great power bargain in Northeast Asia. The book first puts Northeast Asia’s history since 1840 into both a world historical and a systematic normative context, exposing the parochial nature of the history debate in relation to what is a bigger shared story. It then explores the conditions under which China and Japan have been able to reach strategic bargains in the course of their long historical relationship, and uses this to sketch out the main modes of agreement that might underpin a new contemporary great power bargain between them in four future scenarios for the region. The frameworks adopted here consciously blend historical contextualization; enduring concerns with wealth, power, and interest; and the complex relationship between Northeast Asian states’ evolving encounters with each other and with global international society.

Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Goh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
The Rise Of China

The small and medium-sized states in Southeast Asia have faced significant geostrategic changes with the end of the Cold War and the rise of China. Over the last decade, scholars have debated how these countries would cope with growing Chinese power, and how their relations with the other major powers in the region would change. Some analysts have suggested that the region is shifting toward a more China-centered order, but this view is premature. Eschewing the simple dichotomy of balancing versus bandwagoning, Southeast Asian countries do not want to choose between the two major powers, the United States and China. This avoidance strategy is not merely tactical or time-buying; instead, Southeast Asian states have actively tried to influence the shape of the new regional order. Key Southeast Asian states are pursuing two main pathways to order in the region: the “omni-enmeshment” of major powers and complex balance of influence. They have helped to produce an interim power distribution outcome, which is a hierarchical regional order that retains the United States' dominant superpower position while incorporating China in a regional great power position just below that of the United States.

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