Okinawa Beyond the Hub-and-spoke Alliance System: A Reappraisal

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (04) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Carmina Yu UNTALAN
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Hub And Spoke ◽  
System A ◽  
The Us ◽  
Security Values ◽  
State Actor ◽  
Alliance System ◽  
Power Transitions

Okinawa is a cornerstone of the US–Japan alliance. However, it has been marginalised in East Asian international relations whereby a state-centric view of international relations predominates. In an era of power transitions and increasing importance of non-traditional security concerns, Washington and Tokyo need to recognise Okinawa’s contribution as a non-state actor in upholding human security values for the alliance to stay attuned to shifting regional and global needs.

scholarly journals China and the US Alliance System

2017 ◽  
Vol 233 ◽  
pp. 137-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam P. Liff
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
English Language ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
System A ◽  
The Us ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Alliance System ◽  
Language Literature

AbstractIn recent years, scholarship examining US and security allies’ responses to China's rapidly growing power and “assertive” policies towards its neighbours has proliferated. The English-language literature remains relatively one-sided, however. Crucial to understanding the complex forces driving strategic competition in the contemporary Asia-Pacific are comprehensive surveys of how Chinese views are evolving. This study draws extensively on Chinese sources to update existing scholarship, much of it two decades old, with a particular focus on recent Chinese reactions to major developments concerning the US-centred alliance system – a foundational element of the 65-year-old regional order. Beijing expresses deepening frustration towards, and even open opposition to, recent alliance strengthening, and instead champions alternative security architectures free of what it alleges to be “exclusive,” “zero-sum,” “Cold-war relic” US-centred alliances. Proposals for concrete pathways to operationalizing these abstract visions that take into account contemporary political and security realities (for example, North Korea), however, appear less forthcoming.

scholarly journals Keamanan Nasional dalam Konteks Isu-isu Global Kontemporer: Sebuah Tinjauan Hubungan Internasional

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Indah Pangestu Amaritasari
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
National Security ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
State Actor ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractThis article discusses global issues and its relation with national security. Global contemporary issues—drugs, migration, living environment, population, global economy challenges, liberal democracy crisis, fusion and division, small arms production—are issues that emerged as new security threats that transformed since the end of the Cold War. Security threats are no longer in form of “military attacks” that one country does to another, but are acts of crime that are performed by non-state actors and are aimed at state actors, individuals or citizens that ultimately threaten human security. Human security is a new term in response of threats from global contemporary issues. This article concludes that national security in the context of global contemporary issues in an international relations perspective is a complex issue. This is explained in the transnational theory in international relations. United Nations have reassessed the concept of national security which then noted about human security.Keywords: International relations, human security, national security AbstrakArtikel ini membahas tentang isu-isu global dan kaitannya dengan ancaman terhadap keamanan nasional. Isu-isu global kontemporer—obat-obatan (drugs), migrasi, lingkungan hidup, populasi, tantangan ekonomi global, krisis demokrasi liberal, fusi dan pembelahan, produksi senjata ringan—merupakan isu yang lahir sebagai bentuk baru ancaman keamanan yang mengalami transformasi sejak berakhirnya Perang Dingin. Ancaman dalam bentuk baru bukan lagi berupa “serangan militer” yang dilakukan oleh suatu negara terhadap negara lain, tetapi tindakan kejahatan yang dilakukan oleh aktor non-negara (non-state actor) dan ditujukan kepada negara (state actor), individu atau warga negara yang mengancam keamanan umat manusia (human security). Isu keamanan manusia (human security) merupakan istilah baru dalam merespon ancaman dari perkembangan isu global kontemporer. Dalam artikel ini disimpulkan bahwa keamanan nasional dalam konteks isu global kontemporer pada prespektif hubungan internasional adalah hal yang kompleks. Hal ini kemudian dijelaskan dalam teori transnasional dalam hubungan internasional. PBB kemudian memberikan tawaran untuk mengkonseptualisasi kembali pengertian keamanan nasional yang pada akhirnya memberikan masukan mengenai keamanan kemanusia (human security).Kata kunci: Hubungan Internasional, ancaman, human security, keamanan nasional

Taking China Seriously: Relationality, Tianxia , and the “Chinese School” of International Relations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Babones
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
East Asian ◽  
World System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
State System ◽  
Moral Code ◽  
Central State ◽  
Hub And Spoke ◽  
Chinese School ◽  
Tributary System

China’s economic rise has been accompanied by the maturation and increasing professionalization of academic disciplines in China, including the discipline of international relations. The emergence of an indigenous international relations discipline in China has led to an intense debate about the development of a distinctive “Chinese School” that draws on China’s intellectual traditions and historical record to inspire the development of new international relations theories. While the debate continues, the outlines of a Chinese School are becoming clear. The Chinese School of international relations theory draws on Confucian concepts of relationality and hierarchy to theorize the character of the relations between countries rather than focus on the attributes of countries themselves. It also highlights the historical existence of interstate systems organized in a hub-and-spoke pattern around a single, central state. The premodern East Asian world-system in which China was embedded and classical Chinese scholars developed their ideas was a central state system. Premodern China was always by far the dominant state in East Asia, with the result that international relations in the East Asian world-system exhibited a hub-and-spoke pattern centered on China, as in the tributary system of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Moreover the Confucian worldview that ultimately came to be China’s state ideology served in effect as the governing moral code of the system as a whole. The combination of a central state structure with a universal moral code created what in Chinese is called a tianxia (“all under heaven”), a world-embracing system of governance centered on a particular state, in this case China. In a tianxia system international relations tend to be hierarchical because of the clear power differentials between the central state and other states. They can be either expressive (showing social solidarity) or purely instrumental, depending on the stance taken by the central state. Chinese School international relations theorists tend to assume that the “best” (most stable, most peaceful, most prosperous, etc.) world-system configuration would be a tianxia system dominated by expressive rationality and centered on China, but this is no more self-evident than the widely held Western preference for a liberal, rules-based order. What Chinese School international relations theory really offers the discipline is a new set of concepts that can be applied to the theorization and empirical analysis of today’s millennial world-system. This postmodern interstate system appears to be a central state system with a universal moral code, an American tianxia based on individualism. The historical Confucian Chinese tianxia may be the best precedent for modeling this system.

The Prospects of the US Alliance System in Asia: Managing from the Hub

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (03) ◽  
pp. 2040012
Author(s):  
PING-KUEI CHEN
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Hub And Spoke ◽  
Alliance Management ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Defense Cooperation ◽  
Alliance System

This paper examines the implications of the United States’ “hub-and-spoke” alliance system in Asia. It argues that the US enjoys a bargaining advantage in the current bilateral security relations with its Asian allies. In contrast to a multilateral alliance, the US can better prevent free riders and joint resistance in its bilateral relations. It can effectively restrain the behavior of its allies and compel them to accommodate American interests. The hub-and-spoke system helps the US consolidate its policy influence over the Asian allies, supervise inter-alliance cooperation, and increase defense cooperation between allies and non-allies. This paper uses episodes of defense cooperation between the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and India to illustrate the American alliance management techniques since 2016. During this time, the US allies have increasingly participated in regional security affairs due to US demands and guidance rather than autonomous decisions. Facing strong US pressure, allies have found it hard to challenge the US under the hub-and-spoke system despite common grievances. This leads to two implications for the future: First, the US allies may have less autonomy in their foreign policies, restraining their ability to pursue neutral positions and policies in regional affairs such as the South China Sea dispute. Second, the US may discourage or even undermine the emergence of multilateral security institutions in Asia. The US is likely to maintain the “hub-and-spoke” system to safeguard its strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific.

South Korea’s Strategy toward a Rising China, Security Dynamics in East Asia, and International Relations Theory

Asian Survey ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-hyung Kim
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
East Asia ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Leadership Change ◽  
Hub And Spoke ◽  
The North ◽  
Perception Of Threat ◽  
The Us ◽  
Structural Variables ◽  
Rising China

This article contends that South Korea’s behaviors toward China since 1992 can be fully understood when the structural variables of the strategic environment—i.e., economic interdependence, the US-centered hub-and-spoke system, and the North Korean threat—are combined with the domestic variable of Seoul’s leadership change and its perception of threat.

scholarly journals Rivalitas Negara Adidaya di Ruang Angkasa

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-298
Author(s):  
Veronica Marsaulina Situmorang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
State Actor ◽  
The Cold War

International relations not only focused on cooperative relations but also rivalry relationships that characterize the existence of competition to create progress in the global system, whose primary goal is to prioritize the domestic interests of each competing state actor. With all the demands for existing renewal, the modern world makes every country compete fiercely to show self-esteem as a great country. After the cold war, the source of world power has grown from being bipolar, namely the United States and the Soviet Union, to becoming multipolar. This paper will focus on the competition between the United States, and one of the countries predicted to become a new center of power in the international world, namely China. China's rapid progress in various fields has made it even more calculated and has become a new threat to the US as a superpower. Not only the economy and defense, now China's progress is starting to develop in the field of space control, and this is increasingly making the US-China rivalry relationship even more complex. This paper will be explained with a descriptive-qualitative research method that tries to describe in-depth and narrate the form of competition between the United States and China in the control of space and its astropolitics strategy.

scholarly journals The State Actor in Human-Security Issues: A Study of Cambodia and Indonesia

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-92
Author(s):  
Ta-Wei (David) Chu
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
State Actor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Nations Development

Human security has become a popular issue in the realm of international relations, particularly since The Human Development Report 1994 was published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Some research on the subject has acknowledged that individual states are essential actors in achieving human security. This article considers the context of Southeast Asia and explores the case studies of the Cambodian and Indonesian governments, to address their respective domestic human-security issues. To this end, this article considers the modern political histories of Cambodia and Indonesia from a comparative perspective. The article concludes that as a state becomes more democratic its people are likely to have more human security.

The crisis of multilateralism and EU–Russia cooperation

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
FRANCO BRUNI ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Multiple Methods ◽  
The Us ◽  
Good For ◽  
East West ◽  
The Eu

The article is devoted to problems in relations between the EU and Russia. Multiple methods are considered that are aimed at solving the problem of multilateralism in current conditions. The author selected and studied specific documents on essential aspects that are devoted to this topic. Studying the arising problems requires careful consideration since, in the modern world, cooperation between global actors such as the EU and Russia cannot be ignored. Despite all the challenges faced by the parties in their fields, all difficulties are conquerable, and the article provides specific methods for its solving. The article discusses some aspects and problems that require particular attention from specialists in this field. The author concludes that strong US–EU coalition could seem more coherent with history and with the traditional East–West divide. However, the recent evolution of the US attitude towards international relations weakens the probability of such coalition and its perceived payoffs. A more or less defensive Russia–China coalition has been tried with limited results; moreover, if it were possible and probable, the two western players would change their strategy to prevent it or to contain its depth. In fact, we live in a world where many talks of a serious possibility of G2 governance, a peculiar type of coalition where the US and China keep hostile and nationalistic attitudes but join forces to set the global stage in their favor, pursuing a qualitatively limited but quantitatively rich payoff. In such world, as a counterpart of this payoff, both the divided Europe and the economically much smaller Russia would lose power and suffer several kinds of economic disadvantages. Therefore, Greater Europe would be good for Russia and for the EU as well.

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