scholarly journals ASEAN-China Security Relations: Traditional and Non-Traditional Aspects

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Abdullah Wibisono
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Asean Regional Forum ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
Security Relations

Both ASEAN and China used the concept of Non-Traditional Security (NTS) in order to pursue security diplomacy in the Asia Pacific. For ASEAN, NTS is an area of security cooperation that allows it to drive the agenda of security architectures involving extra-regional powers such as the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting Plus (ADMM+) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). For China, NTS policy agenda allows it to gain acceptance among ASEAN member-states and an active role in the security agenda of ASEAN-led security architectures. The question that this article is pursuing is to what extent has ASEAN-China cooperation on NTS balanced between addressing the humanitarian aspect and the political objectives of security? This question is derived from the conceptual origin of NTS that stands on the importance of both the state and the individuals as the referent subjects of security. This article argues that ASEAN-China NTS cooperation emphasized more towards the strengthening of state’s capacity to deal with non-state actors’ transnational criminal activities, either for profit-seeking or subversive purposes. It is also apparent from evaluating the Memorandum of Understandings and Plans of Action between ASEAN and China that NTS cooperation is one China’s investments to engage a closer cooperation with ASEAN as well as a stronger presence in Southeast Asia’s strategic environment.

What Does Strategic Partnerships with ASEAN Mean for Japan’s Foreign Aid?

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis D. Trinidad
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Strategic Partnerships ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
New Development ◽  
Aid Policy

This article examines the implications of Japan’s strategic partnerships with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-countries on its foreign aid policy. Although there were previous attempts at aligning the broad goals of Japan’s aid policy with security and defence objectives, it argues that these partnerships have increasingly led to the emergence of a securitized aid. This is because strategic partnership, as a new form of security practice in the Asia-Pacific, extends the scope of Japan’s regional cooperation to the fields of defence and security. The overall extent of Japan’s aid securitization is still minimal but prominent in terms of the aid discourse, pattern of allotments or choice of recipients and institutional structures. Despite the adoption of new development cooperation charter in 2015, the use of Japan’s ODA is still confined to non-military use which limits Tokyo’s desire to deepen its security cooperation with ASEAN partner-countries.

Palestinian succession fight will be fierce but quiet

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Heating Up

Significance Abbas’s unwavering commitment to a moribund peace process that only deepened Israel’s hold on the occupied Palestinian territories has left him bereft of popular legitimacy. A chain-smoking octogenarian, he has suffered several recent health scares, heating up competition among those looking to succeed him. Impacts The political process with Israel will stay frozen, regardless of a reportedly imminent US peace proposal, which is seen as dead on arrival. Potential leadership candidates will be under pressure to sound hawkish on security cooperation with Israel. Some contenders will begin to reach out to regional powers, notably Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who will provide low-key support.

An Ever Further Apart Union? National and European Attachments in the European Union

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Raney
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Political Identification ◽  
The Eu

This paper is about the ways that citizens perceive their place in the political world around them, through their political identities. Using a combination of comparative and quantitative methodologies, the study traces the pattern of citizens’ political identifications in the European Union and Canada between 1981 and 2003 and explains the mechanisms that shape these political identifications. The results of the paper show that in the EU and Canada identity formation is a process that involves the participation of both individuals and political institutions yet between the two, individuals play a greater role in identity construction than do political institutions. The paper argues that the main agents of political identification in the EU and Canada are citizens themselves: individuals choose their own political identifications, rather than acquiring identities that are pre-determined by historical or cultural precedence. The paper makes the case that this phenomenon is characteristic of a rise of ‘civic’ identities in the EU and Canada. In the European Union, this overarching ‘civic’ identity is in its infancy compared to Canada, yet, both reveal a new form of political identification when compared to the historical and enduring forms of cultural identities firmly entrenched in Europe. The rise of civic identities in both the EU and Canada is attributed to the active role that citizens play in their own identity constructions as they base their identifications on rational assessments of how well political institutions function, and whether their memberships in the community will benefit them, rather than on emotional factors rooted in religion or race. In the absence of strongly held emotional identifications, in the EU and Canada political institutions play a passive role in identity construction by making the community appear more entitative to its citizens. These findings offer new theoretical scope to the concept of civic communities and the political identities that underpin them. The most important finding presented in the paper is that although civic communities and identities are manufactured by institutions and political elites (politicians and bureaucrats), they require thinking citizens, not feeling ones, to be sustained.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i4.179

scholarly journals Populist radical right parties, welfare policy and population health in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Rinaldi ◽  
M P M Bekker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Population Health ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background The political system is an important influencing factor for population health but is often neglected in the public health literature. This scoping review uses insights from political science to explore the possible public health consequences of the rise of populist radical right (PRR) parties in Europe, with welfare state policy as a proxy. The aim is to generate hypotheses about the relationship between the PRR, political systems and public health. Methods A literature search on PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar resulted in 110 original research articles addressing 1) the relationship between the political system and welfare state policy/population health outcomes or 2) the relationship between PRR parties and welfare state policy/population health outcomes in Europe. Results The influence of political parties on population health seems to be mediated by welfare state policies. Early symptoms point towards possible negative effects of the PRR on public health, by taking a welfare chauvinist position. Despite limited literature, there are preliminary indications that the effect of PRR parties on health and welfare policy depends on vote-seeking or office-seeking strategies and may be mediated by the political system in which they act. Compromises with coalition partners, electoral institutions and the type of healthcare system can either restrain or exacerbate the effects of the PRR policy agenda. EU laws and regulations can to some extent restrict the nativist policy agenda of PRR parties. Conclusions The relationship between the PRR and welfare state policy seems to be mediated by the political system, meaning that the public health consequences will differ by country. Considering the increased popularity of populist parties in Europe and the possibly harmful consequences for public health, there is a need for further research on the link between the PRR and public health.

scholarly journals Security expertise and international hierarchy: the case of ‘The Asia-Pacific Epistemic Community’

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Jerdén
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Social Order ◽  
International Security ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Epistemic Community ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regional Stability ◽  
General Explanation

AbstractMany states partially relinquish sovereignty in return for physical protection from a more powerful state. Mainstream theory on international hierarchies holds that such decisions are based on rational assessments of the relative qualities of the political order being offered. Such assessments, however, are bound to be contingent, and as such a reflection of the power to shape understandings of reality. Through a study of the remarkably persistent US-led security hierarchy in East Asia, this article puts forward the concept of the ‘epistemic community’ as a general explanation of how such understandings are shaped and, hence, why states accept subordinate positions in international hierarchies. The article conceptualises a transnational and multidisciplinary network of experts on international security – ‘The Asia-Pacific Epistemic Community’ – and demonstrates how it operates to convince East Asian policymakers that the current US-led social order is the best choice for maintaining regional ‘stability’.

Cienfuegos affair threatens Mexico-US security ties

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Political ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Military ◽  
Trump Administration

Significance The situation has highlighted several issues of concern around the influence of the Mexican military, the government’s reliance on it and the challenges Mexico and its security agencies face in trying to meet US demands while addressing domestic threats. Impacts Mexican militarisation was facilitated by Trump administration apathy on human rights; this will change under President Joe Biden. Increased US-bound migration, encouraged by Biden’s more humane rhetoric, will heighten the need for bilateral security cooperation. Future Mexican administrations will struggle to reverse the political influence the military has obtained.

Regional security cooperation against hegemonic threats: Theory and evidence from France and West Germany (1945–65)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Joshua Byun
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Strategic Flexibility ◽  
European Security ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Considerable Support

Abstract Why do some regional powers collectively threatened by a potential hegemon eagerly cooperate to ensure their security, while others appear reluctant to do so? I argue that robust security cooperation at the regional level is less likely when an unbalanced distribution of power exists between the prospective security partners. In such situations, regional security cooperation tends to be stunted by foot-dragging and obstructionism on the part of materially inferior states wary of facilitating the strategic expansion of neighbours with larger endowments of power resources, anticipating that much of the coalition's gains in military capabilities are likely to be achieved through an expansion of the materially superior neighbour's force levels and strategic flexibility. Evidence drawn from primary material and the latest historiography of France's postwar foreign policy towards West Germany provides considerable support for this argument. My findings offer important correctives to standard accounts of the origins of Western European security cooperation and suggest the need to rethink the difficulties the United States has encountered in promoting cooperation among local allies in key global regions.

The Role of National Diversity in Political Reform A Comparative Study between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the British Northern Ireland Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tareq Kakarash ◽  
Alnasir Doraid
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Difference

The issue of national diversity is considered one of the most important points in studying the development of political systems in our time. Many scholars and researchers have noticed that there is rarely a people or nation in the world today that does not possess different national or ethnic diversity, some of which succeed in forcibly obliterating them, which leads to its ignition and the division of nations and states. (As happened in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Eight State, the Empire of Austria-Hungary, etc.) and as it will happen in the future in other repressive countries, no matter how long their repression takes, and some of them succeed in preserving them through assimilation and understanding, as happened in Switzerland and a few other countries. While there are countries that have been striving for decades to arrange their national situations (such as India, Belgium and Spain), with varying degrees of success. The element of national diversity sometimes plays an active role in reforming the political system, and at other times this national diversity hinders the entire political reform. On the basis of the difference and contrast between the two models in terms of the degree of modernity and development, however, a careful examination of the two models confirms that they are not different to this degree. Only years (1998 in Britain and 2003 in Iraq) and the political conflict still exists in the two countries, leading to a final solution to this crisis.

Self-government and 1911 in China: Revolution or Continuity in the Political Participation in Sichuan Province?

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 165-189
Author(s):  
Monica de Togni
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Sichuan Province ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Western Sichuan ◽  
The Creation

The process that led to the creation of self-government organs, and their activities in the first years of their existence, shows a consistent continuity between the imperial and the republican institutions, but also some changes in the institutional behaviour of the representatives of the local communities before and after the 1911’s revolution. The different meaning attributed to the institutional reforms as they appear to have been interpreted by the Qing Court, from the interpretations by the local society - a tools to control the political activism of the local notables vs a means to play a more active role in the local policy -, did not interfere with the creation of the organs of self-government, a part of the new structure to be built for the constitutional monarchy scheduled through imperial edicts on 27th August, 1908. The local activism and activities, as they are illustrated for Sichuan province through provincial and county archive documents, local gazetteers and reviews, show contradictory tendencies even as relates to some officials, and part of local communities anticipating sometimes the dispositions by the central government for the implementations of self-government, and some resistance by the people who had the right to vote in the participation to the preparatory process for the poll. However, the flourishing of self-government councils of the lower level and the fields of their interventions as representatives of the local communities show a very positive attitude on part of the local communities that continued until Yuan Shikai closed them down in 1914. This study will be concentrating on this aspect and will include, among other things, the case-study of Xuanhan county in north-western Sichuan, where a powerful local lineage played a very relevant role, taking advantage of the disruption of the provincial institutional order.

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