Coup de Grace: How the Quad is Hastening the Destruction of ASEAN

The rise of the US-led Quad alliance in 2017 will be a test for ASEAN. Southeast Asia is at the center of a simmering strategic rivalry between the two world superpowers, the US and China. China's meteoric economic ascendence on the global stage has shifted the balance of global power in today's geopolitics. This article seeks to examine the potential of how the Quad may shake the ASEAN's unity and centrality as a result of China's rise. Beijing has expanded its influence throughout Southeast Asia and is by now easily ASEAN's largest trading partner, while at the same time it has aggressively asserted its pseudohistorical irredentist claims in the South China Sea, a vital route for regional trade, creating territorial disputes with some ASEAN member countries. This article found that the geopolitical situation in Southeast Asia is likely to grow more difficult, perhaps affecting Southeast Asia's policy of non-alignment. Some argue that the Quad will bring balance in the Asia Pacific; however, this view will inevitably change if some ASEAN countries in favor of FOIP decide to join the Quad, either formally or informally, and work together to attempt to counterbalance China, which would leave ASEAN itself torn apart.

Symposium: ‘The BRICS, Global Governance, and Challenges for South–South Cooperation in a Post-Western World’

Over the past decades, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries have experienced significant economic growth. However, their political voices in global governance have not grown on par with their economic surge. The contributions to the symposium ‘The BRICS, Global Governance, and Challenges for South–South Cooperation in a Post-Western World’ argue there is a quest for emerging markets and developing countries to play a more significant role in global governance. There is a widening gap between the actual role of emerging markets and developing countries in the global system and their ability to participate in that system. However, for the moment, various domestic and international political-economic challenges limit this quest. To understand why this is the case, one should understand the BRICS phenomenon in the broader context of the global power shift towards the Global South.

Prelude to America’s Downfall: The Stagflation of the 1970s

Since the end of the Bretton Woods system and the stagflation of the 1970s, the transatlantic core, under the leadership of the United States of America, has been trying to expand its model of free market capitalism embracing every part of the globe, while addressing its domestic overaccumulation crisis. This article follows a historical methodological perspective and draws from the concept of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD), which helps us consider the structural reasons behind the long and protracted decline of the American economic power. In this respect, according to the UCD concept, there is no global power that can enjoy the privilege for being at the top of the global capitalist system forever in a world which develops unevenly and in a combined way. Power shifts across the world and new powers come to challenge the current hegemonic power and its alliance systems. The novelty of the article is that it locates this decline in the 1970s and considers it as being consubstantial with the state economic policy of neo-liberalism and financialisation (supply-side economics). However the financialised capitalism of the transatlantic assemblage lack industrial base producing, reproducing and recycling real commodity values. Further, the article shows that this attempt to remain at the top of the global capitalist system forever has not been successful, not least because the regime which the recovery of the core had rested upon, that of neo-liberal financialisation represents a major vulnerability of the transatlantic assemblage eroding the primacy of the United States of America in it.

Climate challenges and hydraulic power industry as a powerful tool to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement

Fossil fuel energy and increase in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere cause global climate change. In pursuance of the goals of the Paris Agreement, the global power industry must switch a significant part of fuel energy production to renewable energy production. The expected share of various sources in the global power industry by the end of the 21st century is provided. However, the limited possibilities of the biosphere make the current level of energy production from renewable sources nearly impossible. The most preferable scenario is proposed to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by reducing the use of coal by 170 million tons per year, which will ensure a corresponding reduction in emissions by 620 million tons per year and the achievement by 2050 of the material balance of carbon in the emission - flow system. Under the most preferable scenario, it will be necessary to commission alternative replacement powers of about 160 GW per year; at the same time, the average global temperature will additionally rise by 0.6 С compared to the current one. The prospects and advantages of the development of the Russian hydraulic power industry as an environmentally and economically efficient alternative to coal projects are considered. In the emerging reality, Russian hydraulic power companies are advised to determine their ambitious share of the Russian quota for reducing emissions and commissioning 30 GW of replacement hydraulic power capacities by 2050 with additional electricity generation of up to 120 TWh per year.

Low carbon transition of global power sector enhances sustainable development goals

Low-carbon power transition, key to combatting climate change, brings far-reaching effects on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in terms of resources use, environmental emissions, employment, and many more. Here we assessed the potential impacts of power transition on 49 regional multiple SDGs progress under three different climate scenarios. We found that power transition could increase global SDG index score from 72.36 in 2015 to 74.38 in 2040 under the 1.5℃ scenario, compared with 70.55 and 71.44 under ‘Coal-dependent’ and ‘Middle of the road’ scenario, respectively. The power transition related global SDG progress would mainly come from switching to renewables in developing economies. Power transition also improves the overall SDG in most developed economies under all scenarios, while undermining their employment-related SDG progress. The global SDG progress would be jeopardized by power transition related international trade changes under ‘Coal-dependent’ and ‘Middle of the road’ scenario, while improved under the 1.5℃ scenario.

India-Africa Political Relations: Issues and Perspectives on Global Political Dialogue, Democracy and Good Governance

This paper explores India’s relations with African countries which date back to the time when Indian traders began to engage with countries along the eastern coast of Africa. These relations took a new turn by the end of the 20th century, with many drivers and rallying points of 20th century such as de-colonization and racial discrimination disappearing. By the turn of the Century, with a prospered economy and a population of more than I billion people India ceased to belong to the same group as the African states. Due to this change in status India’s priorities also changed and it is now playing in the bigger league which presents India with different realities and preoccupation. At strategic level, India’s determination of becoming an influential global power requires the support of African countries, especially in securing a seat at the United Nations Security Council and for the overall expansion and democratic governance reforms of the Council. This paper interrogates the question: given its current status and strategic interests in global affairs, what areas should India engage with African states in order to realize her global power ambitions?

More than a makeover: Discourses of masculinity, hyposexuality, and marriage in Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!

This article examines Anglo-American portrayals of sexual inactivity in Japan, a media narrative that has been critically overlooked, yet offers much insight into how the regulation of sexuality and masculinity is tied to global power relations and nationalist ideologies. Global fascination with the rise of sexual inactivity in Japan has mostly been confined to news media; however, the topic has also begun to appear in popular media texts such as Netflix's makeover show Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!, presenting a valuable opportunity to expand our understanding of this narrative and the questions it raises about sexual normativity. Drawing from a comparative textual analysis, I argue that while both news coverage and Queer Eye consistently frame Japan as a site of dysfunctional sexuality and masculinity, differences in aesthetic, narrative, and industrial conventions lead these texts to create divergent common-sense understandings about sex, masculinity and Japaneseness that formulate their Orientalist narrative.

Visions of Future Warfare in Russian Military Publications

The article discusses visions of future warfare articulated in recent Russian military publications. There seems to be agreement among Russian scholars that future war will be triggered by Western attempts to promote Western political and economic interests while holding back Russia's resurgence as a global power. The future war with the West is viewed as inevitable in one form or another, whether it is subversion and local wars or large-scale conventional war. While the danger of conventional war has declined, according to several scholars, the West is understood to have a wide range of non-kinetic means at its disposal that threaten Russia. In order to withstand future dangers, Russia has to be able to meet a large number of kinetic and non-kinetic threats at home and abroad.