Session 14
Economics, Security,
and Leadership: Northeast Asian Integration in the Post-Cold War
Era
Organizer/Chair: Dr.
Campbell, Joel R., Kansai Gaidai University
In an age of globalization and a rapidly shifting security environment,
Northeast Asia faces many political and economic challenges. Can the
region get beyond the confrontational geopolitics and competitive
economic policies that shaped the region throughout most of the Cold
War era? What will the region look like in twenty to thirty years, and
which nations will emerge as regional leaders? This panel explores the
complex mix of security, economic and leadership issues that shape the
current international relations of the region, with special attention
to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. China is also a looming presence for
all of the papers, and major powers outside the region such as the U.S.
and Russia maintain their presence in the area.
This panel will analyze the tremendous changes occasioned by
globalization that are altering the security environment of East Asia.
Campbell, as chair, will begin the session by stimulating a brief
discussion on an important topical theme relating to the changing Asian
security environment. Campbell will then overview major changes in the
Japan’s foreign policy, especially as it changed to a new generation of
leaders. Hong will assess the changing nature of integration efforts in
Northeast Asia, focusing on possible joint Japanese-Korean projects.
Mulloy will consider how Japan is using soft power in its relations
with Asian countries. Chang will examine attempts by Taiwan to broaden
its concepts of security and approach to foreign relations. As
discussant, Keum will critique the papers in light of the themes
introduced in the opening discussion.
1) Joel R. Campbell, Kansai Gaidai
University
Koizumi to
Aso: Continuity and Change in Japanese Political Leadership
The Japanese political system faces an increasingly difficult domestic
and international environment, and its political economic options are
ever more constrained. The political system has yet to adjust to a
multi-dimensional complex of paradoxes generated by the transition to a
globalized world economy. Still hoping to muddle through with policies
that worked well during the era of high growth, the conservatives that
still determine economic and international policy are committed to an
incremental reform process. This paper examines the ongoing Japanese
political economic transition from the standpoint of economic
globalization. It suggests that structural adjustment will eventually
necessitate major political changes. It also advances a new theoretical
construct for examining endemic gridlock in the Japanese system. Called
punctuated stasis, it sees gridlock as a fundamental feature of both
political culture and institutional arrangements. Reform movements and
assertive leadership are not only rare, but politically unacceptable,
and repugnant to most elite factions.
The paper will consider the specific cases of Prime Ministers Koizumi
to Aso, and examine the reasons for their success or failure. It will
also present issue areas on which Japanese governments have been most
likely to advance its foreign policy agenda. Finally, it will suggest
possible future directions in which the Japanese political system will
evolve over the next twenty years.
2) Hong Jeong-pyo,
Miyazaki International College
Is a United States of Northeast
Asia Possible? The Korea-Japan Submarine Tunnel
Project
This study is intended to describe the historical relations and
background of relations of the three Northeast Asian nations and to
diagnose the present situation, and to forecast policy and vision for
economic integration for “Peace and Development” in the Northern East
Asia. Many observers feel that it is vital to formulate a plan for
“Peace and Development” in the region. An Asian Common Community may
take root in the Northeast Asia.
As a catalyst for integration among Japan, Korea, and China, a
Korean-Japanese submarine tunnel project has been discussed in academic
and business associations. The primary purpose of this paper is to
examine the possibility of construction of Korean-Japanese submarine
tunnel and how this will affect economic integration in the
region.
First, this paper will examined theories explaining the advent of
ASEAN+3. Second, it will look at historical experiments toward
Northeast Asian integration. Third, it will consider the current
situation of economic cooperation between Korea and China, including a
Sino-Korean submarine tunnel project suggested by South Korea, with
much preparatory work already completed by Japan. The Korean-Japanese
tunnel would pass through Tsushima, which is 50 km. from Korea, and 100
km. from Fukuoka of Japan. Fourth, it will present the 2002 Korea/Japan
FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Korea and Japan, as a model of effective
cooperation. Fifth, an idea for a Tsushima free trade zone has also
been suggested from Koran side. Finally, the paper will look at the
possibility of economic integration among China, Japan, and
Korea.
I will use a qualitative procedure (including observations, documents,
and visual materials), combine quantitative designs (interviews and
questionnaires if necessary), and compare existing theories.
3) Garren
Mulloy, Daito Bunka University
Softer Power' and Japan's
security in a shifting East Asian political economic
environment
As the consequences of the financial turmoil in autumn 2008 become
clearer, the combination of a significant shift in US domestic
politics, and the serious erosion of US economic and military power
through poor management and judgment, will have significant
implications for Japan’s position within East Asia’s political economic
environment. With a dominant US ally seemingly less dependable in terms
of market demand and the “hard power’ buttress for Japan’s major
security concerns of North Korea and China, there is an opportunity
born of expedience for Japan to utilize its skills as a “soft” or
“softer” power East Asian player. This “new” policy can be based upon
more than three decades of foundation work conducted by public,
semi-public, and private bodies at many levels, with many of the
regional political economy actors of East Asia. Utilizing public and
private relationships established through ODA, commerce, and limited
security cooperation, Japan’s new “softer power” engagement has the
potential to be a low cost “win-win” strategy in a new regional
environment.
4)
Ching-Chang Chen, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
From
Trouble Maker to Peace Builder? Taiwan’s Evolving Security Strategy
under the Ma Ying-jeou Administration and Its Implications for East
Asia
This paper has three purposes: to trace the ongoing transformation of
Taiwan’s security policy following the power transfer from the
independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to the status
quo-oriented Kuomintang (KMT) in May 2008, to examine the debate
between the proponents and critics of such a transformation, and to
consider the implications of Taipei’s new strategic paradigm for
regional security as well as the obstacles to its continuation. The
shift of the focus from becoming a ‘normal nation’ to the ‘no
unification, no independence, and no use of force’ dictum since the
inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou is embodied in Taipei’s call for
a ‘diplomatic truce’ with Beijing (in which both Taiwan and China
should stop their ‘chequebook diplomacy’, that is, wooing each other’s
diplomatic allies through bribery), the normalisation of economic
exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, and the so-called ‘SMART’ approach
to national security (the S in SMART stands for soft power, M for
military preparedness, A for assuring the status quo, R for restoring
mutual trust, and T for Taiwan). While the existing debate is
preoccupied with whether the Ma administration has been giving in too
much to China at the expenses of Taiwan’s interests, this paper argues
that the greatest significance of the evolution of Taiwan’s security
strategy lies in the (near) completion of a complex web of strategic
hedging among major East Asian countries since the mid-2000s to cope
with the uncertainties associated with China’s rise. Moving away from
its previous ineffective balancing, Taipei has begun to pursue a policy
of enmeshing China discursively in non-use of force rhetoric, as well
as economically and institutionally; sustaining the interest of other
states in the regional security order (Japan in particular); and
maintaining substantial security ties with the US (Washington’s
approval of a $6.5 billion package of military equipment for Taiwan in
October 2008 can be understood in this light). Nevertheless, the new
hedging policy remains unstable so long as the construction of the
Taiwanese self (of which the island’s foreign and security policy is a
part) continues to use China as a convenient Other.
Discussant: TBA