Why Asian states cooperate in regional arrangements: Asian regionalism in comparative perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110289
Author(s):  
Diana Panke ◽  
Jürgen Rüland

Regional cooperation in Asia takes place in formal Regional Organizations (ROs) as well as in less formal Regional Fora (RF). In addition, unlike in other parts of the world, Asian regionalism mainly developed in one instead of two waves. Especially after the end of the Cold War, Asian countries created numerous ROs and RF. Over time, Asian states became members of several ROs and RF at the same time, thereby contributing to Asian regime complexity. Given that multiple memberships in regional cooperation agreements can place high demands on diplomatic and financial resources of member states, the fact that Asian states became members in between one and 17 ROs and RF is puzzling. This article investigates why Asian countries join regional cooperation agreements. Based on a theory-guided empirical analysis that combines quantitative and qualitative methods, it argues that hedging and economic interests are the main driving forces behind Asian regionalism and that these motivations are often interlinked.

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 249-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashed Uz Zaman ◽  
Niloy Ranjan Biswas

United Nations (un) peacekeeping missions have become an important feature of world politics since the end of the Cold War. In recent times, the intensity of peacekeeping missions has increased and new challenges have also emerged. Under such circumstances, the un has often highlighted the importance of regional organizations getting more involved in undertaking and sustaining such missions. South Asian countries provide a large number of troops to un missions and yet, a regional collaboration has not been accorded much importance by countries of the region. This paper argues, given the emerging challenges, South Asian countries may have to resort to a regional approach with regard to peacekeeping missions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Lee Seung Joo

While aggressively embracing free trade agreements (FTAs) in general, East Asian countries have incorporated security and political factors in promoting FTAs under the swiftly shifting regional economic and security environments, epitomized by the end of the Cold War, the Asian financial crisis, and the intensifying Sino-Japanese rivalry. Therefore, a sole focus on economic factors would fail to shed light on East Asian strategies for linking FTAs and security. While FTAs have mushroomed in East Asia since 2000, East Asian countries have pursued FTAs not merely to increase their economic interests. In many cases, they have attempted to link FTAs to broader security considerations. However, they have demonstrated markedly diverse ways of linking FTAs and security, depending on their primary economic and security imperatives as well as their domestic political situations.


Author(s):  
Diana Panke ◽  
Anna Starkmann

AbstractCooperation between states takes place in International Organizations (IOs) and Regional Organizations (ROs). Since we know more about the evolution of cooperation in IOs than ROs, this paper examines trajectories of regional cooperation. Based on a novel dataset, it provides a descriptive analysis of how all 76 ROs developed over time. This reveals that regional cooperation evolved in two waves with respect to RO size as well as the policy areas of cooperation. The paper adopts an explorative approach to examine these patterns. This reveals that ROs with regional courts and ROs which adopt a model of dynamic change are more likely to broaden their policy scopes. In addition, during the Cold War, ROs with initially broad policy scopes were less likely to obtain additional competencies, while after 1990 ROs were more likely to broaden their policy scopes when they are large in size, when their members are economically strong and when majority decisions are possible in their day-to-day operation.


Author(s):  
KARTHIK NACHIAPPAN

This paper surveys India–ASEAN relations since the late 1990s amid the ongoing quest for a new regional compact in a post-pandemic era to advance India’s growing security and economic interests in Southeast Asia. During the cold war, India preferred to engage bilaterally with Southeast Asian countries than engage ASEAN directly. This tack shifted after 2000 as new security challenges arrived, particularly the need to secure the Indian Ocean. India’s overtures with ASEAN and ASEAN states grew alongside defense cooperation, which are now being renewed and renegotiated under the “Indo-Pacific” rubric despite differences over how India and ASEAN states regard the concept. Economic liberalization changed India’s calculus in the 1980s, which led to a series of overtures to economically tether India to the ASEAN. India–ASEAN trade grew dramatically over the last decade but fears abound over whether India’s rejection of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement will reverse its economic footprint in Southeast Asia. Given both security and economic differences between India and the ASEAN, opportunities exist in joining to address shared transnational challenges like cybersecurity and counterterrorism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 404-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J Biersteker ◽  
Sue E Eckert ◽  
Marcos Tourinho ◽  
Zuzana Hudáková

Targeted sanctions are increasingly used by the United Nations (UN) Security Council to address major challenges to international peace and security. Unlike other sanctions, those imposed by the UN are universally binding and relied upon as a basis for legitimating both unilateral and regional sanctions measures. Encompassing a wide range of individual, diplomatic, financial, and sectoral measures, targeted sanctions allow senders to target a specific individual, corporate entity, region, or sector, helping to minimize the negative effects of sanctions on wider populations. This article introduces the Targeted Sanctions Consortium (TSC) quantitative and qualitative datasets, which encompass all UN targeted sanctions imposed between 1991 and 2013, or 23 different country regimes broken into 63 case episodes for comparative analysis. Adding to existing datasets on sanctions (HSE, TIES), these new, closely interrelated datasets enable scholars using both quantitative and qualitative methods to: (1) differentiate among different purposes, types of sanctions, and target populations, (2) assess the scope of different combinations of targeted measures, (3) access extensive details about UN sanctions applied since the end of the Cold War, and (4) analyze changing dynamics within sanctions regimes over time in ways other datasets do not. The two TSC datasets assess UN targeted sanctions as effective 22% of the time and describe major aspects of UN targeted sanctions regimes, including the types of sanctions, their purposes and targets, impacts, relationships with other institutions, sanctions regimes, and policy instruments, mechanisms of coping and evasion, and unintended consequences.


Author(s):  
Jude Woodward

This book has considered the US decision to ‘pivot’ to Asia aiming to preserve its global primacy by containing China. Seeking to boost US influence among China’s neighbours, while painting China as a dangerous revisionist power and regional aggressor, its policy has parallels with the Cold War. But when the US embarked on its confrontation with the USSR it was at the height of its economic power. Today in courting Asian allies it has had little to offer but the power of its military machine. So while the US has made some progress in re-building its influence in the affairs of the region, it has been far from enough to stall China’s rise or to convince other Asian countries to break with China. Moreover on-going distractions in the Middle East, domestic opposition to the TPP, and other troubles mean it has not even been able to concentrate its resources on China, undermining confidence in the seriousness of its turn to Asia. As a result the US has failed to drive a decisive wedge between China and any neighbours apart from Japan and not been able to inflect its increased presence in the region into a more substantive advantage.


Author(s):  
Bertjan Verbeek ◽  
Andrej Zaslove

This chapter discusses the impact of international politics on the rise of populist parties as well as the impact of populism on the foreign policy of the countries in which populist parties are present. It argues that the end of the Cold War, the advent of globalization, and the impact of regional organizations (e.g. the European Union) presented opportunity structures that facilitated the rise of populist parties. Similarly, the chapter argues that the effect of populist parties on their countries’ foreign policy is largely due to their attaching ideology. The chapter thus distinguishes between four types of populist parties, each attaching salience to different foreign policy issues: the populist radical right, the populist market liberal, the populist regionalist, and the populist left.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ileana Pătru-Stupariu ◽  
Marioara Pascu ◽  
Matthias Bürgi

Landscape researchers tend to reduce the diversity of tangible heritage to physical aspects of cultural landscapes, from the wealth of intangible heritage they focus on land-use practices which have a direct and visible impact on the landscape. We suggest a comprehensive assessment of both tangible and intangible heritage, in order to more accurately assess the interconnection of local identity and the shaping of cultural landscapes. As an example, we looked at Saxon culture and cultural landscapes in southern Transylvania (Romania), where we assessed features of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, identified their resilience and the driving forces of their change. Our analysis, based on 74 interviews with residents in ten villages in southern Transylvania, showed a high resilience of tangible heritage and a low resilience of intangible heritage. A major factor responsible for changes in the Saxon heritage was a decline in the population at the end of the Cold War, due to migration, driven by political and economic factors. We conclude by discussing the specific merits of such an analysis for integrated landscape management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Fischer ◽  
Daniel Möckli

Switzerland was in a unique place among European countries after World War II. Although situated in the center of Europe, it had not been attacked by Nazi Germany and therefore emerged from the war with a strong economy, stable political institutions, and social cohesion. The experience of World War II forged a collective identity different from that in other continental states. The Swiss had a deep emotional commitment to neutrality and a conviction that autonomous defense would continue to be an effective security strategy after 1945. The Swiss government acknowledged the need for, and indeed was supportive of, the new United Nations collective security system. The Swiss were well aware of the benefits of Western collective defense and European integration as the Cold War divide came about. But Switzerland was willing to associate with these new multilateral governance structures only to the extent that they did not negatively affect neutrality or, in the case of European integration, Swiss economic interests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Summer 2021) ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Berdal Aral

The Palestinian tragedy is not simply a matter of one nation-state suppressing another nation that has been deprived of its legitimate right to establish its own state. It is also an ‘international problem’ granting that it has regional, international and global dimensions which implicate the hegemonic world system. Besides, Israel’s aversion to a peaceful posture vis-à-vis the outside world is a threat to international peace and security as defined in the Charter of the United Nations. An emancipatory approach to the Palestinian problem requires that the narrative about the ‘two-state solution’ be abandoned given that it has become a rhetorical shield for international society’s silence in the face of the Israeli fait accomplis in occupied territories. The Arab and the Muslim world, alongside the rest of international society, should no longer view Israel as a ‘normal’ state. Rather, the world ought to consider acting collectively to impose economic, financial, military, political/diplomatic, and cultural embargo against this aggressive, expansionist, and racist state through the United Nations and a host of other international and regional organizations, as was the case vis-à-vis the Apartheid South Africa during the Cold War.


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