Japan, China and East Asian regionalism: implications for the European Union

East Asia is becoming an increasingly coherent regional entity in political economic terms, and remains a region of enormous geo-strategic significance for the European Union. Europe’s links with China and Japan are especially important, and moreover these two countries are looking in various ways to exercise various forms of regional leadership in East Asia. This has critical implications for the EU’s relations with the East Asia region generally, and also for the wider international system. Similar and related impacts maybe construed from deepening East Asian regionalism, involving processes where both Japan and China play vitally important roles. The analysis presented here examines the both micro and macro level developments in East Asian regionalism, and issues relating to Japan, China and regional leadership. It concludes by discusses the implications of these matters for the European Union, and recommends that the EU should pay particularly close attention to emergent exercises of regional leadership in East Asia, most likely to be performed by Japan and/or China.

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The Faulty Logic of the European Union & Its Consequences for the United States

The European Union is in crisis because it is based on a wrong understanding of political development. Its founding assumption is that a common market and a common currency would lead to a unified polity; that Europeans would arise out of the euro. This has not happened and Europe is fraying economically and politically. And the United States is not a disinterested spectator because a weaker and more divided Europe undermines a key foreign policy objective pursued over the last century—of a Europe whole, secure, and free. Consequently, it is premature for Washington to reorient its strategic attention away from Europe.     

Japan and the European Union: shared foreign policy interests

Background  Japan and the European Union (Reiterer (2004b) 2:33–42) are both interested in enhancing their international standing in order to overcome their perceived status as economic giants but political dwarfs. While the reasons for this endeavour as well as the inherent characteristics of the actors involved—a traditional nation state as compared to the most advanced integration structure world-wide—are quite different, both entities see themselves primarily as civilian powers (Whitman (2006) 11(1):1–15) without neglecting the need to endow themselves with a military capacity in order to be more effective and credible on a world-wide scale. The ‘EU is emerging as a key regional actor in certain global affairs, particularly in such areas as finance, trade, environment and development, and current policy is directed towards enhancing the role of the European Union in the global governance system. To this end, the European Commission is actively engaged in such issues as the global governance of trade, the protection of human rights, the promotion of democracy, strengthening of regional and global security communities, and encouraging regional integration in other parts of the world.’ (Farrel (2005) 10(4):452–453)—all areas, except the latter task, where the EU and Japan could potentially cooperate closely.Objectives  Before identifying shared foreign policy interests between the EU and Japan, I will first bring to light some of the interests the EU has in East Asia in general; secondly I will chart the major Japanese foreign policy interests which will allow me to map out areas of potential common interest and concern.Adjunct Professor for International Politics, University of Innsbruck; Minister and Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Japan; the author expresses his own views which should not be attributed to the European Commission. The author whishes to recognize the research assistance of Ms. Sachi Claringbould.

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乌克兰独立以来与俄、美、欧(盟)关系演变述评

乌克兰由于地汇欧亚、东西的优越地位,其外交具有特殊的重要性.独立10年来,其外交经历了从亲西方的"一边倒"到实行以国家利益为核心的平衡、务实外交的过程.俄、美、欧(盟)是乌克兰的三个最主要的外交对象.乌克兰把自己定位为欧洲国家,以加入欧盟、"融入"欧洲一体化为外交发展的优先方向,同时从不忽略、不敢得罪俄美两家.乌克兰与美国的关系政治特色突出,与俄罗斯的关系则更多的是客观因素在起作用.美俄对乌克兰的政策具有争夺的性质,各有所图.但美对乌克兰并无把握,俄逐渐扭转了被动局面.受俄、美、欧(盟)三大势力的影响,乌克兰的外交在夹缝中生存,不得不走钢丝,左右逢源,在三者中间维持某种平衡,为自己谋取国家利益和国际地位.     

Consensus to Contestation: Reconfiguring Democratic Representation in the European Union in the Light of 19th Century United States Democratization

This article explores how proposals for democratizing the European Union (EU) according to a supranational, contestational model are likely to disrupt its existing political system. The current EU is characterized by a dual system of representation that combines the representation of member states with that of individual citizens. Democratization typically entails enhancing the representation of individuals at the expense of state prerogatives. It is thus possible to make a pertinent analogy with the antebellum United States, which also featured dual representation, and where a great wave of democratization took place following Andrew Jackson's presidency (1829–1837). As the system of representation there became more majoritarian, John C. Calhoun led the calls for introducing new anti-majoritarian constitutional safeguards. A transatlantic comparison suggests the contestational system born of EU democratization will require institutional innovation in order to prove viable. In this context, Calhoun's theory of nullification, an ex post political mechanism wielded by the units to stymie federal legislation, appears more appropriate as an anti-majoritarian bulwark and better able to engender constitutional debate over competences than is the EU's stillborn judicial principle of subsidiarity. In similarly Calhounian fashion, a bottom-up procedure of constitutional amendment originating in the units is further proposed as a way of establishing unit acquiescence to greater supranationalism.     

美日住房权保障经验及对我国的启示

住房权是联合国规定的重要的公民权利,是基本人权。我国1997年签署并于2001年加入《经济、社会和文化权利国际公约》,承诺为实现公民的住房权而努力。而迄今为止,并没有制定一部有关住房权保障方面的法律,近年来由于房价的攀升和全国人大将《住房保障法》列为立法规划之一,引起学界对住房权、住房权保障问题的热议。美日两国的经验教训表明,公民住房权的实现,仅仅依据公民的自我努力是不够的,要使我国公民的住房权真正实现,就要借鉴发达国家的经验和教训,在承担国际义务的前提下根据我国的国情,将政府保障公民住房权的义务上升为法律义务,通过法律保障措施来明确国家责任、政府责任,只有将两者紧密结合,才能促进公民实现住房权。     

The impact of the Japan-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement on the trade and income of Japan,the European Union,and South Korea

Asia Europe Journal - This study analyses the effects of the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on Japan and the EU’s 28 countries since it was enforced in 2019. The Japan-EU EPA...     

Doom in East Germany,Dawn in the New East European Member States of the European Union? Elements of a Comparative Analysis

The economic, and in part political, transition failures in East Germany, based on institutional path dependencies and politicians begging for the median voter, form the background of this analysis. Although there are plentiful data to compare developments in East Germany and West Germany after unification in 1990, East German developments are rarely explicitly contrasted with those in the eight new East European member states of the European Union. Such comparisons are vital in highlighting the long-term drawbacks and catastrophic failures committed in the East German case. Acknowledging that much more empirically guided theoretical research lies ahead, this article aims at being more than a mere “think piece”.     

美日创业投资实质的探索与启示

创业投资对美国经济增长的促进作用是人所共知的。多年以来,各国学者和业界人士致力于研究美国的创业投资问题。比较美国和日本创业投资的实质可以看出,创业投资之所以在美国形成并得到良好的发展,不仅有物质层面的原因,还有精神层面的原因。即美国创业投资的形成与发展,是在创造文化引领下,由市场需求拉动的结果。美国独特的创造文化对高新技术及创业投资的形成与发展具有不可忽视的牵引与推动的作用;而日本的创业投资之所以未取得理想效果,是因为其依附型文化,只能使其专注于制造流程中的渐进的创新,而非产品的创新。日本长期以来银行主导型的融资模式也限制了创业投资的发展。因此,我国若要发展创业投资,重视创业投资对经济增长的促进作用,培育促进原始自主创新的创造文化已成为当务之急。     

Negotiating in the European Council: A Model European Union Format for Individual Classes

This paper demonstrates the use of an in-class simulation to model negotiations in the European Council. Simulations are an increasingly popular way to teach the complex processes of policymaking and negotiations in the European Union (EU) where institutional procedures are difficult to understand and where intergovernmental and supranational issues often conflict. Advocates of active learning promote simulations to get students more involved and to reach an increasingly diverse student body. The simulation presented here has three separate sessions, each covering a different issue and lasting for a week (two class days) each. Modeling the European Council allows students to experience the intergovernmental side of policy decisions in the European Union while at the same time learning about the issues facing EU policymakers. It is a useful tool for teaching about the EU presidency and a worthwhile exercise for studying the national aspects of European integration. Student surveys indicate that students process the information they gain by role-playing better than information they receive in the traditional classroom. A simulation of the European Council gives students a base for understanding issues of European integration and can serve as a springboard for further study of EU institutions.     

美国、苏联崛起的必要条件与充要条件及对中国的启示

反思美国、苏联崛起的历程，可以得出一个结论：生产力的高度发展是国家崛起的必要条件，而在此基础上，社会结构的完善和高度有序是国家持续崛起的充要条件。这也是对中国和平崛起的启示。     

China, Nuclear Security and Terrorism: Implications for the United States

This article outlines Chinese strategic nuclear forces and the Chinese philosophical approach to nuclear security. It then focuses on the domestic conditions in China which could precipitate vulnerabilities to its nuclear forces. From information about internal security conditions in China, specific internal threats to Chinese nuclear security will be derived. Based on these threats, several outsider and insider scenarios will be outlined involving a variety of terrorist or terrorist related behaviors. These notional scenarios will include everything from overrun or attack, to diversion, to cyber terrorism, to sabotage. The article will then cover what these scenarios and the possible Chinese reaction to them may mean for the security, military and diplomatic strategies of the United States.