A Middle Power's Roles in Shaping East Asian Security Order: Analysis of Japan's Engagement from a Normative Perspective

East Asia is currently in a transitional period. Recognizing the challenges presented by China's rise to the current regional order, existing literature analyses the security situation in Asia by focusing on the material aspects of power distribution between the US and China. Few works substantively discuss the roles played by middle powers such as Japan in shaping the regional order and how they can deal with the challenges of great power competition and threats to the global rules‐based order. By employing Japan's involvement in the South China Sea issues as a case study, this article examines how a middle power attempts to shape or underpin the regional security order and if such attempts are effective. The investigation of Japan's engagement illustrates that a middle power's practical support can indirectly and gradually contribute to sustaining and defending the regional “rules‐based order”.     

The Return of Great-Power Competition to the Middle East: A Two-Level Game

Great-power competition has once again assumed primacy in the international arena. Facing a rising China and a resurgent Russia, the United States formally reoriented its National Security Strategy in 2017 to place more emphasis on the return of great-power politics and global multipolarity. With the resumption of such competition, the Middle East has rightfully been noted as a regional theater where Russia and China have sought to exploit US policy blunders and retrenchment (real or perceived) to push for increased regional multipolarity. Although the Middle East has been recognized as a prime theater for great-power competition, the approaches adopted by most existing studies are primarily one-sided: they examine great-power competition in the region from the outside, stressing how global powers are manipulating affairs in the Middle East in order to advance their own interests. Often missing from this conversation is how external engagement in the Middle East is being exploited and shaped by regional powers and endogenous developments. This study seeks to fill this gap by using the conceptual lens of omnialignment to examine how regional powers are manipulating the return of great-power competition to advance their own strategic imperatives, both at home and abroad.     

从东南亚到非洲:日本对外援助的政治经济学

2006年,日本对非洲的援助开始超过亚洲,非洲成为接受日本对外援助最多的地区。这一变化是长期以来日本对外援助理念、与受援国关系建构以及与主要援助国互动关系变化的反映。本文试图构建一种援助体系的分析框架,并确定了影响对外援助的三组关系:援助国与受援国的关系、对外援助与国内政治的联系、对外援助与国际社会的联系。日本对外援助理念和政策的变化正是这三组关系在不同阶段影响程度不同的反映。通过研究发现,日本的对外援助已经远远超出了经济利益和人道主义考虑的范围,将援助作为外交和战略工具逐渐成为其对外援助的一个重要特征。日本的对外援助是援助研究中比较有代表性的案例,通过这一研究能更好地认识国际援助的发展。另外,日本对外援助过程中的一些经验教训也能为中国提供借鉴。     

Intellectuals and Political Change in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

This article introduces the special issue on Intellectual dynamics in the modern Middle East. It discusses key themes of the contributions, including intellectuals as social and political actors, intellectuals, power and the state, and history, tradition and regional temporality.     

Civil Society as Ideology in the Middle East: A Critical Perspective

Since the early 1990s support for civil society has constituted the linchpin of international efforts in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) to promote democratisation and democratic values. The rationale for this support lies in an understanding of civil society drawn from a liberal-democratic model, which dominates debates about civil society. This paper highlights the inaccuracies of this model when applied to the MENA and, using Turkey as an example, draws attention to the perils of supporting civil society organisations (CSOs) based on its conjectures. A critical analysis of CSOs and their role in Turkish society, drawing on the theoretical framework laid down by Gramsci, highlights two key issues: (1) contrary to the dominant policy view which equates civil society organisations with democracy, CSOs often assist elites in both democratic and undemocratic states to extend and consolidate their political economic power; (2) the idealisation of civil society by Western policy makers results in a diminished awareness of the factors which weaken civil society and erodes its democratic potential. Overall, the findings support the assertion that CSOs in the MENA facilitate predominantly elite interests over those of ordinary citizens and democracy more broadly.