Chapter Four. Domestic Power Transitions and Japan’s Evolving Strategic Posture, 2006 to 2012

Author(s):  
Andrew L. Oros

This chapter examines the first administration of Shinzo Abe, the fall of the LDP from power, and the three years of rule by the Democratic Party of Japan, with a focus on security policy innovation in this period.


Author(s):  
Yuriy Spirin ◽  
Vladimir Puntusov

In the Kaliningrad region there are about 70 % of all polder lands in Russia. On these lands with high potential fertility, it is advisable to intensive agriculture. The area for the average moisture year is an area with excessive moisture, which indicates the need to maintain the rate of drainage on agricultural land. Many different factors play a role in ensuring the drainage rate, one of which is pumping stations and pumping equipment installed on them. An important parameter in the use of pump-power equipment is energy consumption, since in this industry it is a considerable expense item. Improving the energy efficiency of pumping stations on polders is a pressing issue today. At the majority of polder pumping stations, domestic power pumping equipment is installed with excess power and head of 4–8 meters, and a new one is selected based on the maximum possible head in a given place. In the Kaliningrad region, the energy efficiency of polder pumping equipment has never been analyzed. In this paper, a statistical processing of the geodesic pressure of water at the polder pumping stations of the Slavsk region for 2000–2002 was carried out. On the basis of these data and data on the hydraulic characteristics of pressure pipelines, the calculated water pressures were determined for the rational selection of pumping equipment. The calculation of the economic efficiency of pumps with optimal power compared with pumps of excess capacity. The results of the study can serve as a justification for the transition to the pumping equipment with less power and pressure, which will lead to a decrease in the cost of money for electricity.


Author(s):  
Michelle Murray

How can established powers manage the peaceful rise of new great powers? With The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations, the author offers a new answer to this perennial question in international relations, arguing that power transitions are principally social phenomena whereby rising powers struggle to obtain recognition of their identity as a great power. At the center of great power identity formation is the acquisition of particular symbolic capabilities—such as battlesheips, aircraft carriers, or nuclear weapons—that are representative of great power status and that allow rising powers to experience their uncertain social status as a brute fact. When a rising power is recognized, this power acquisition is considered legitimate and its status in the international order secured, leading to a peaceful power transition. If a rising power is misrecognized, its assertive foreign policy is perceived to be for revisionist purposes, which must be contained by the established powers. Revisionism—rather than the product of a material power structure that encourages aggression or domestic political struggles—is a social construct that emerges through a rising power’s social interactions with the established powers as it attempts to gain recognition of its identity. The question of peaceful power transition has taken on increased salience in recent years with the emergence of China as an economic and military rival of the United States. Highlighting the social dynamics of power transitions, this book offers a powerful new framework through which to understand the rise of China and how the United States can facilitate its peaceful rise.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhiannon Vickers

When British Prime Minister Harold Wilson urged Lyndon Johnson not to escalate hostilities in Vietnam in 1965, he did so not because he was morally opposed to the war or thought the war was intractable but because he was concerned about the likely impact of U.S. actions on his own domestic power base. Wilson's stance of providing moral but not military support for U.S. policy in Vietnam caused anger and disillusionment among leftwing Labour Party activists and members of Parliament, spurring them to active opposition against Wilson's government. Even so, Wilson managed to prevent a major schism within his government and party over the Vietnam War. His attempts to broker a peace deal between the combatants were largely designed to placate Labour Party activists while raising Wilson's profile as a world statesman. Although the initiatives did not generate any progress toward a ceasefire, they were relatively successful on the domestic front.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Peczeli ◽  
Henry Gilchrist ◽  
Megan Cordone ◽  
Kayleigh Haskin

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (71) ◽  
pp. 43-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Ejdus

Abstract Serbia is the only state in the Western Balkans that is not seeking NATO membership. In December 2007, Serbia declared military neutrality and in spite of its EU membership aspirations, developed very close relations with Moscow. The objective of this paper is threefold. First, I argue that in order to understand why Serbia declared military neutrality, one has to look both at the discursive terrain and domestic power struggles. The key narrative that was strategically used by mnemonic entrepreneurs, most importantly by the former Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, to legitimize military neutrality was the trauma of NATO intervention in 1999 and the ensuing secession of Kosovo. In the second part of the paper, I discuss the operational consequences of the military neutrality policy for Serbia's relations with NATO and Russia, as well as for military reform and EU accession. Finally, I spell out the challenges ahead in Serbia's neutrality policy and argue that its decision makers will increasingly be caught between pragmatic foreign policy requirements on the one hand and deeply entrenched traumatic memories on the other.


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