The Asian Rejection?: International Refugee Law in Asia*

The majority of Asian states have not signed onto the major international refugee law instruments which promote refugee recognition and protection. Yet, second to Africa, the Asian region has had the highest number of refugees since the Second World War. Three explanations are usually offered to explain this puzzle —“good neighbourliness”, “economic costs” and “social disruption”. In this article I argue that each is flawed in important ways and then develop an alternative by explaining how limited Asian involvement in the drafting of international refugee law has led Asian states to reject Eurocentric refugee recognition practices.     

Dynamics of Trade in Value-Added in “Factory Asia”

ABSTRACT

Trade patterns in East Asia are termed the “Factory Asia” model, whereby Asia functions as a “global factory” that imports intermediate goods from its regional networks and then assembles and exports them as finished goods to higher-income developed countries. In 2001, China’s accession into the World Trade Organisation consolidated this pattern by becoming the core economy in this model. However, is this pattern still valid after more than a decade of rapid development in East Asian countries? The main objective of this article is to examine the evolution of this pattern of trade in East Asian countries. Although the key findings of this study show that the Factory Asia model continues, it is changing as different East Asian countries capture more value in global value chains. The gaps in the rate of upgrading are identified and mainly attributed to differences in government policies and competition. However, the dependence on foreign inputs still remains an important part of high-technology production in East Asian countries. Hence, the idea that East Asia is evolving from a “factory” into a “Research & Development hub” remains far-fetched.     

Development of the Mekong Region as Part of Japan's Diplomatic Strategy for East Asia

Japan's active engagement in the development of the Mekong region since the 1990s needs to be understood not only from an economic but also from a diplomatic perspective. Japan seeks to collaborate with ASEAN in facilitating multilateral “political dialogue” in the Asia-Pacific region and building an East Asian order based on “universal values” such as democracy and the rule of law, and the Mekong region could be the “weakest link” of ASEAN. After outlining Japan's twenty-year undertaking to cultivate Mekong-Japan cooperation, the author suggests that it is time to broaden the scope of the cooperation and accelerate Japan's “proactive contribution to peace” policy to cope with the changing security environment.     

东亚文化与出版交流的实践与思考——东亚出版人会议的意义解读

东亚出版人会议紧扣着东亚文化与出版两大主题,从人的交流、书的交流到企划出版的交流这3个层面,既务虚也务实。一方面通过相互间的文化与理念的交流,期望了解彼此邻近却隔膜的现代化的心路历程;另一方面则通过共同出版"东亚人文书100",进行跨越国界的文化事业的交流。不过,中、日、韩3国所推荐的书目依然代表着各自不同的文化诉求,因此,如何通过文化的交流来重构东亚的价值和理念,还需要出版人的进一步努力。     

Yale

Abstract

During the summer, Yale CCAS will sponsor a series of 5 public lectures on Asian studies as well as a number of informal open seminars on the nature of Asian studies in the U.S., American foreign policy in Asia, comparative study of China and Vietnam, and other topics to be decided by planners and participants. All suggestions are welcomed. Plans are being made to show several films, including “Remember Vietnam” and “In the Year of the Pig.”     

Anand Patwardhan: Social Activist and Dedicated Filmmaker

In this essay—an earlier version of which was delivered as a lecture at a session cosponsored by Critical Asian Studies and the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK) at the annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, California, on 23 March 2013—the author argues the need to go beyond the current state of perilous confrontation and volatility on the Korean Peninsula and examine how and why the current division of the peninsula into North and South has evolved into a “division system.” The author contends that “civic participation” (broadly defined to include business entrepreneurs, corporations, NGOs, and private citizens) is necessary to deal with the durable enormity of the division system. He calls this body of nonstate actors the “third party” (the first two parties being those of North and South Korea). Going beyond strictly Korean affairs, this third party, the author concludes, can play a crucial role in creating a larger framework of East Asian cooperation and solidary.     

The European Union (EU) in Asian Security: Actor with a Punch or Distant Bystander?

The EU calls itself a “soft power,” making “soft power” contributions to Asian security. That is undoubtedly what the EU is and does in Asia and the track record of European contributions to Asian peace and stability through economic and financial as well as development aid and technical assistance over the decades is not unimpressive. As will be shown below, over recent years Brussels and the Union's individual member states have sought to increase their involvement and role in Asian “hard security,” attempting to get rid of its reputation of being security a “free-rider” enjoying but not sharing the burden of US regional security guarantees. While the EU will continue to be a “hard security” actor in Asian security within limits, it is advised to concentrate its security cooperation with like-minded partners such as Japan and the US as opposed to hoping that talking to Beijing on regional or global security issues produces tangible results. As will be shown below, it clearly does not as Beijing continues to conduct very assertive and at times aggressive regional foreign and security policies insisting on the “principle of non-interference” in Chinese domestic and foreign policies. Consequently, EU influence on Chinese foreign and security policies in general and its increasingly aggressive policies related to territorial claims in the East China and South China Seas will continue to exist on paper and paper only.     

“We women aren't free to die”

Using feminist pedagogy and postcolonial theory, the authors of this article focus on the (re)presentation of Asian sexualities in an Asian classroom through a feminist reading of the short prose fiction “Bandong,” by Suchen Christine Lim. Constantly aware that representations of sexualities are closely linked to power, the authors question how academic knowledge can seek to (re)present Asian sexualities when that knowledge itself is deeply imbricated in power structures that empower global concepts of sexualities. The argument advanced in this article draws attention to essentialistic gender representations that continue to this day of Asian femininities and masculinities. For instance, the authors challenge the ways in which the trope of the subjugated Asian woman and man works in predictable ways to disempower Asian women and men far removed from such stereotypical locations. Critiquing dominant representations of Asian sexualities in the classroom involves teaching students to take ownership of their own reading and re-reading of texts. In addition, the article delves into how the authors attempt to make the academic package relevant to their students situated in the local Singaporean context.     

In pursuit of universal values

Is universality inherent in freedom and human rights? Yes, says Keijiro Tanaka, trustee and senior advisor at IIPS. Only democratic systems of government embodying constitutional liberalism can safeguard the freedoms and rights of their citizens, and the spread of democracy offers the best chance for ensuring a peaceful world. However, freedoms and rights must go hand in hand with duties and responsibilities, and Tanaka argues for codifying these in a document which would supplement and support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He says “Asian values” as championed by some Asian leaders do not have the same universal quality as the rights and freedoms set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because they are traditional moral precepts or social virtues that can be used for both good and evil. He feels Japan should be more responsible in the pursuit of universal values which are shared by all other liberal democracies.     

Asian Common Currency as a Driving Force of Economic Integration in East Asia: A Prospect

This article proposes an open and multi-tiered economic and financial system with introduction of an Asian common currency as a form for the Post Bretton-Woods arrangement. After reviewing the role of the incumbent international economic system, the reasons that an Asian common currency could contribute to consolidate the new international system is discussed bearing in mind the new environment of the relative decline of economic power of the United States and relative rise of economic power of China. Then a “roadmap” for the introduction of an Asian common currency is provided and how to proceed steadily on the long road towards the introduction of the new currency is argued. In particular, it is emphasized, as the world looks for a new direction, that strong political collaboration in the region is required precisely now with a view to making this a reality.     

Emerging New East Asian Regionalism

East Asian regionalism is emerging starting with a process of “ASEAN plus three” cooperation and moving to a final East Asian Community. The foundation of East Asian regionalism lies in increasing regional common or shared interests. The significance of East Asian cooperation and integration is its developing process. “10?+?3” framework is not just an economic cooperation process but also has political significance. The process of East Asian cooperation plays a dual role in community building: reconciliation among the countries, and cultivation of each member itself. The major role of regional institutional building is peace making through cooperation under a regional framework. The cooperation between China and Japan is crucial for East Asian Community building.     

Reflections on Japan's past

Fifty years after the devastation of World War II, Japan's remarkable long‐term, export‐driven economic success is known as the East Asian development model and East Asian economies have become the engine for the world's economic growth. Yet the collapse of Japan's 1980s over‐inflated “bubble economy” has created apathy and pessimism, says former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. In May 1995, on the occasion of his seventy‐seventh birthday, after more than 45 years in the Diet, IIPS Chairman Nakasone reflects on Japan's modern history and issues a call for renewal in the following speech. Above all, he says, “Japan does have a few mavericks” and “people with true convictions [should] come forward . . . the Japanese are waiting for genuine leadership.”     

Introductory essay to symposium on modes of production and social formations in Asian Societies

Abstract

The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars and the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars have always attempted to provide alternatives to “established” scholarship in the Asian studies field. When CCAS came into existence in the mid-1960s, the main task was to formulate a critique of the cold war inspired scholarship of the 1950s, and to attempt to counteract the prevailing views concerning the communist countries and national liberation movements of Asia. This in turn led to an analysis of the structure of academic inquiry and academic funding in the United States, and to a realization of the political character of the “apolitical” stance of the Asian studies academic establishment.     

In their image: The Vietnamese Communist Party,the “West” and the social evils campaign of 1996

Abstract

This article analyzes the production of English-language and Vietnamese-language state-owned newspaper reports that appeared in the early days of the “social evils campaign” in Vietnam in January and February 1996. While the English-language coverage attempts to depict the campaign as an attempt to create a drug-free, able-bodied workforce in compliance with international anti-trafficking efforts, the Vietnamese-language coverage portrays the campaign as an attempt to fight against decadent and corrupt “Western values” in order to reinvent the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) as the gatekeeper of Vietnamese tradition. These depictions serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, they can be seen as an attempt by the VCP to walk a fine line to avoid the alienation of the expatriate community while at the same time reconstituting itself as a significant institution in the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. At another level, the social evils campaign demonstrates that neither an easy invocation of “democratization theory” nor a call to arms against Eurocentrism and an affirmation of the particularity of the “East” is sufficient to analyze under what conditions purportedly “Communist” parties might survive and grow vibrant in an age of globalization. Rather, it is important to note the role of the West not as an actual entity but as an imagined phenomenon against which a pure, Eastern tradition is constructed. In other words, the Vietnamese Communist Party uses the social evils campaign to construct the “West” as a phantasmic “straw man” in order to construct itself in the inverted image of the “West,” as “anti-West.” This portrayal is put forward despite the fact that most foreign direct investment in Vietnam comes from East Asian countries and that the businesses singled out in the newspaper articles as the locus of “social evils” were often Japanese-, Korean-, or Vietnamese-owned.     

Letter from the Philippines

In this “critique and rejoinder” Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett argue that Constance Lever-Tracy and Noel Tracy (authors of “Mismatch at the Interface,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 31, no. 3 [1999)) have fallen into the trap of searching for an “optimal” form of capitalism rather than moving beyond contemporary capitalism's “end-of-history” ideology and envisioning and struggling for a more sustainable and human-developmental system. Lever-Tracy and Tracy reply that however much one might hope for a revival in the fortunes of workers in China and Southeast Asia the reality is that “in the kind of short-term perspective relevant to a temporary, frictional crisis, there really is no realistic prospect for solving [the current crisis] by constructing an alternative society.”     

Beneath the Eagle's Wings? The Political Economy of Northeast Asian Burden-Sharing in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines Japanese and South Korean host-nation support (HNS) policies toward American forces deployed in those two countries from a comparative perspective. It finds that both countries provide substantial support for US forces, contrary to the expectations of collective action theory and the assumptions of many international relations theorists about free-riding. Northeast Asian HNS support tends to be both quantitatively substantial and to involve an unusually elaborate range of common support programs, thus constituting a distinctive Northeast Asian model of “burden-sharing.” The specific programs supporting US forces in these two countries were generally designed by local politicians and bureaucrats, with only minimal input from the US, albeit under American pressure. They were implemented in discontinuous fashion, at critical junctures, as during the Gulf War and the first Korean nuclear crisis. These results thus provide useful elaboration of “reactive state” and “critical juncture” interpretations of how East Asian policymaking relates to domestic and international politics.     

Ethnicity and capital: Changing relations between China and Southeast Asia

This article seeks to debunk the persistent myth of an ethnically-based Chinese capitalism and the culturalist view of an “economic miracle” created by Asians of Chinese descent. This myth claims that Chinese entrepreneurs constitute a closed category with homogenous ethnic attributes and cultural values that have enabled them to achieve economic success. This article disputes such primordialist views and proposes an alternative analysis of the cultural economy of regionalisation and constructions of Chineseness. It deconstructs the politics of culture and identity, and argues for the need to analyse Southeast Asian Chinese entrepreneurship within specific historical, geographical, economic, political and socio-cultural contexts.     

Security and Peace in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

Two recent books make significant contributions to the scholarly literature both in East Asian security studies and in international relations theory more generally. While developing international relations theory by drawing from the non-Western experiences of East Asia, these books complement the existing international relations theory that has been criticized for being overly West-centric. The books also develop some interesting East Asian, neopragmatic ideas on the “theory of theory” in international relations. These ideas have a potential of not only changing our answers to questions about East Asian security but also reformulating the questions we ask in our investigation of international security issues.     

Reflections on the implications of the Vietnam Caucus

Abstract

It is revealing that a Vietnam Caucus held in March 1968 should end its meeting by beginning an evaluation of the professional “conscience” of Asian scholars. That it took this war to raise the latent problems in the profession is itself a depressing commentary on the state of the field. But the desire on the part of some individuals to create a nationwide inter-university student-faculty Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars to pose and then seek to resolve these problems fulfills one of the organizers' hopes.     

“Tongpan”: An important event in Thai cinema

Abstract

Films being made in Asian countries are now beginning to express an Asian reality. This is happening in a small way, but it is happening. The scale of the movement to break away from Hollywood and Bombay-type extravaganzas, and from films as a kind of “celluloid LSD,” is still small, constrained as it is by film-makers and sellers out to make quick profits. One little ripple that has recently emerged from the stagnant waters of Asia's film world is called “Tongpan.” The work of a group of creative amateurs, “Tongpan” is not the result of a commercial venture, and is not a professionally-made film in the conventional sense. It is also not a film in the style of what has come to be known as the “New Wave Cinema,” for “Tongpan” is not an art film to be “museumed” for wealthy connoisseurs. But precisely for all these reasons it is important that a film called “Tongpan” has been made. Indeed an important event has occurred in Thai Cinema. Important because it shows what is happening to the Thai people in the name of ‘development’ and captures for posterity the tensions and strains of an important period in Thailand's recent history.