Western and East Asian Protection of Human Security

One of the main trends in the international relations and international security, for the past two decades, has been the new eagerness to intervene into failed and autocratic countries if they fail to protect their own citizens. This trend has distinguished East Asia (including both Southeast and Northeast Asia) from the West. Generally, the distinction has been based on three differences in strategic orientations. First, the role of the military is seen differently in East Asia and the West. Secondly, the role of states as instruments of the protection of civilians is seen differently in the West and East Asia. Thirdly, there is a difference between East Asia and the West regarding to the expected role of the UN Security Council in the authorization of protection. This article investigates the consequences of the three different strategies on human security by reviewing existing literature and by combining new data on discourses of protection with conflict data on various indicators of human survival and welfare. While the Western strategic concept of human security is dominant and hegemonic in the global debate, it seems, on the basis of this investigation, that the East Asian strategy of self-restraint, non-militarism and respect for sovereignty is more effective in the protection of civilians.

Japanese Perspective on Korean Reunification: An Analysis of Interrelations between Social Identity and Power

The paper explores how experts in Japan assess and understand the process and consequences of the unification of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Based on the theoretical framework of interrelations between social identity and power, this paper asks how Japanese experts frame the process of Korean unification and evaluate its impact on Japan. The data was collected in Tokyo, Japan, through 37 semi-structured and focus group interviews, then examining these interviews using phenomenological and critical discourse analysis. Analysis of data reveals the existence of four competing narratives rooted in the complex relations between meaning of identity, concepts of power, and Japanese policies toward the unification process. The paper expands the description of two narratives currently present in the existing literature, (1) threat and (2) peace, and introduces two new narratives, (3) democratic processes and (4) restorative justice. The final discussion explores how three groups of factors, (1) regional dynamics, (2) domestic policy, and (3) possible models of unification, influence the prevalence of a particular narrative as well as resulting policies of Japan toward Korean unification.

Materiality, Territory and Sovereignty: Responding to Contradictory Water Security Issues in the Mekong Region

Aspirations for sub-regional, regional and global cooperation at a bi-lateral and multilateral level over water security are strong and yet often a real or perceived gap exists between intentions and the workings of institutions. In the area of water security difficulties are often premised on tensions between national territory and national sovereignty. As a result, emphasis has been placed by decision makers on how to most effectively classify the ‘most at risk’ areas from water security issues. However, this objective itself is often separated from wider issues of economic land ownership. Yet stakeholders paradoxically have both similar and yet different understandings of what counts as territory and sovereignty. A majority of stakeholders continue to pursue a ‘realist’ or liberal approach to the spaces of national sovereignty and territory as water course or water basin. This binary assumption of territory as a specifically bounded political space is given here as a reason for limited concrete results on water security governance. Recalibrating this understanding of sovereignty, territory and security through a sociology of materialism might therefore open alternative spaces for ensuring issue-specific governance in spaces now impacted by the dynamics of infrastructure and sub-regional connectivity. By framing these tensions through the issue of territory and materialism the paper identifies gaps and strategic opportunities emerging that might potentially recalibrate the conceptual and policy debate on water security and its territorial assumptions.

The Paris Agreement and the Prospects for Socialization into the Climate Norm: Lessons from the U.S. and China

The Paris Agreement made a breakthrough amid the deadlock in climate negotiations, yet concerns are raised regarding how much impact the new voluntary climate regime can make. This paper investigates the socialization mechanism that the Paris Agreement sets up and explores the prospects of “institutional transformation” for it to make a dent. It examines the factors that can facilitate voluntary climate action by using the cases of the most recalcitrant emitters, the United States and China. It argues that the US and China cases suggest that the socialization from the bottom-up by domestic actors may be one of the critical elements that determine states’ position on climate change.

Ontological Continuity in the Modern World-System: Agency, Areas, and the Structures-of-Knowledge Approach

With the passing of Immanuel Wallerstein, it is worthwhile to take note of his contribution to problematizing the unit of analysis. Rather than the states-as-containers interpretation, Wallerstein contributed that spatiotemporal units of analysis could be more meaningfully discussed in terms of their interactions within a larger system. The more well-known of his arenas are the axial division of labor (economic) and the interstate system (political). The third, the structures-of-knowledge methodology, aims to expand the “broadly cultural” arena as well. This paper will consider his project of reasserting agency through structural metanarrative with suggestions for ways to use his analysis to lend greater continuity to area-knowledge at a crucial time of transition.

Learned Societies, Cultural Encounter, and Social Distinction: The Royal Asiatic Society and Pre-War Western Relations with Korea, Japan, and China

The Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), a British learned society for the antiquarian study of Asian civilizations, established a number of branches in East Asia between 1865 and 1900 and quickly became a central location for the socialization of elite westerners within these states. This paper examines the social function of three RAS branches by analyzing their membership characteristics between 1865 and 1934, and draws out the role of Western associational culture in pre-war interactions between Western states and Northeast Asia. The activities of the RAS presented an opportunity for prominent personalities to demonstrate social distinction and reinforce their status as leading members of their communities, and to make claims to local expertise through the study and discussion of East Asian societies. RAS branches attracted a diverse mixture of diplomats, customs officials, military officers, missionaries, educators, merchants and medical professionals. Through a comparative analysis of the membership characteristics of RAS branches in Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai (the branches covering Korea, Japan, and North China respectively), the different social structures of the Western communities in these three states can be discerned. These reflect particular aspects of international relations between Northeast Asia and the West before the Second World War.

Conjunctures on “ASEAN Citizenship” 1967-2017: Identities, Ideas, Institutions

In 2015, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was said to have set in motion a regional community with “peace, prosperity, and people” at the core of its transition towards deeper integration. In 2017, it marked its 50th year - a narrative arc in Southeast Asian history that has arguably defined the region’s contemporary period. What then could be the next for the organization? This paper explores one of those ideas that has been floating around about ASEAN’s future in relation to its people-oriented vision. In particular, it enquires into the abstracted and non-legal notion of “ASEAN citizenship” through identification of conjunctures in the development of the organization. While ASEAN’s lack of a legitimating policy on regional citizenship is understandable given its normative frameworks of intergovernmentalism and non-interference, the paper contends that this notion has already been discursively defined and constructively pursued from within the organization. The resulting narratives on regional identity formation and on ideas and institutions that articulate and generate potential elements of regional citizenship seek to capture aspects of this slippery yet lingering presence of “ASEAN citizenship,” and hopefully contribute to the evolving conversations on the nature and future of ASEAN as it enters a new era.

Human Rights Anchored in Business: Practice and Challenges in the Palm Oil Sector in Malaysia

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights aims to address gaps in human rights governance by setting a standard and corporate culture of respecting human rights. In Malaysia, despite growing requirements for sustainable production, the palm oil sector has been implicated in various corporate human rights violations. This article discusses how do three public listed companies in the palm oil sector in Malaysia perform their obligation to respect human rights? This article argues that while large palm oil companies have shown modest progress in realizing their human rights obligation – the lack of regulatory framework, resources, direct market pressure and membership to sustainability standards continue to serve as critical challenges in compensating the gaps in human rights governance.

Critical Review of North Korean Women and Children's Health, 2000-2019: Physical and Mental Health Challenges with a Focus on Gender

Women account for over eighty percent of recent North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea, yet there is dearth of gender-based research. Given the speed with which the dialogue on denuclearization with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) has progressed since 2017, there is a surprising gap in research on possible health threats. If sanctions are eased, interactions with these previously isolated people will increase leading to potential health problems. This article reviews studies published since 2000 to understand physical and mental health faced in DPRK, among North Korean defectors to South Korea, and to provide policy recommendations. A content analysis of ninety studies found that mental health challenges are severe for North Korean defectors, and that women suffer differently than men during defection and its aftermath. We recommend a more nuanced and gendered approach for future research in order to devise tangible solutions to improve the health of North Koreans in general, and defector women and children in particular.

Norm Internalization and Disability-inclusive Elections in the Philippines

This article reviews the emergence of international norms connected with disability-inclusive elections and provides evidence of how they were cascaded and internalized in the Philippines. It examines the experience of the persons with disabilities (PWD) sector in the campaign for disability-inclusive elections. With the support of civil society organizations and international development partners, the PWD sector lobbied for the passage of the Accessible Polling Place (APP) Act which aims to improve the enfranchisement of PWDs. Primary data were collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions, while a contextual analysis of relevant secondary documents was conducted to show proof of norm internalization in the establishment of disabilityinclusive elections.