The rocky road of interregionalism: EU sanctions against human rights-violating Myanmar and repercussions on ASEAN–EU relations*

From 1991 until 2012, the European Union (EU) applied sanctions on Myanmar with the purpose of promoting democracy and human rights. In addition, the EU called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to exert pressure on Myanmar. This paper analyses, in the context of Myanmar’s 1997 accession to ASEAN, how the EU’s sanctions approach towards Myanmar was perceived within ASEAN and related repercussions of this approach on ASEAN–EU interregional relations. With the accession of Myanmar as the base story, it is argued that a regional organizations membership concept implies specific dealings with normative ideas such as democracy and human rights as well as strategies of punishment such as sanctions. The differing membership concepts of ASEAN and the EU explain ASEAN’s critical perception of the EU’s sanctions on Myanmar. Further, the conceptual difference in membership also explains that the EU’s pressure on ASEAN has severely impaired the interregional relations.     

The EU's role in developing security cooperation with Myanmar at the ASEAN Regional Forum: 2004–2008

This article tracks the European Union’s efforts at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF), from 2004 to 2008, to encourage Myanmar directly or indirectly to engage in security cooperation. It, then, explores Myanmar and ASEAN's reactions to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis to Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta in 2008. It focuses on ARF as a forum whereby interactions take place. It examines whether the complementary of the analytical variables provided by the logic of consequences and appropriateness [March, J.G. and Olsen, J.P., 1998. The institutional dynamics of international political orders. Oslo, Arena Working Paper No. 5; 2004. The logic of appropriateness. Oslo, Arena Working Paper No. 9], social mechanisms [Checkel, J., 1999. Social construction and integration. Journal of European public policy, 6 (4), 545–560.] and observations derived from interviews (Southeast Asia and Brussels) can explain ASEAN and Myanmar’s reactions and, also, the EU’s behaviour in relation to the Myanmar-Nargis event. The EU’s role is explored through the co-chair’s summary reports of the meetings that the EU co-chaired with ASEAN. The article uncovers the EU’s efforts to encourage ASEAN to take up responsibilities and Myanmar to accept multilateral security options. It argues that, as the EU tried to inspire Myanmar to connect with cooperation, “Myanmar hit by Cyclone Nargis” motivated the EU Council to include the "responsibility to protect" as a new goal of the European foreign and security policy of December 2008.     

Exploring the Political Agency of Humanitarian NGOs: Médecins Sans Frontières During the European Refugee Crisis

Due to the recent high influx of refugees, migration has become one of the most politicised issues within the European Union (EU). To explore the political agency of humanitarian NGOs, this article analyses the behaviour of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) during the peak of the influx from April 2015 to June 2016. Outrage about the EU’s response to the refugee crisis triggered confrontational and politicised strategies from MSF that aimed to enhance contestation and mobilise public opinion. The proximity of the crisis and the organisation’s independence and decentralised structure facilitated this political agency. Furthermore, neither MSF’s strong commitment to the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, nor its cooperative ties to national and international political elites, hindered its political actions in this situation. This article therefore refutes the common perspective that humanitarian NGOs are generally cooperative and, ultimately, depoliticising agents in global governance. Under certain conditions, humanitarian NGOs can decide to become highly political and confrontational in opposing national and EU policies.     

加快推进共同体进程,平衡扩大区域合作——东盟2012年内外合作分析

2012年,东盟各国政局总体稳定,经济平稳增长,缅甸进一步融入东盟大家庭,成员国在各领域加强合作,加快推进东盟共同体进程。在区域合作中,东盟坚持大国平衡外交政策和东盟的主导地位,但在南海问题上东盟的协商一致原则受到挑战。展望2013年,东盟将继续有效执行各项一体化计划,缩小成员国发展差距,扩大区域合作,以便于2015年建成东盟共同体。     

Democratization and foreign policy in Southeast Asia: the case of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus

Recent democratic transitions in Southeast Asia raise the question as to how we should theorize the relationship between democratization and foreign policy. Many scholars assume that more ‘democratic’ Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members pursue more ‘liberal’ policies than their less-democratic counterparts, but surprisingly little theoretical work investigates the connection. This article argues that such investigations tend to crumble under close scrutiny. Instead, it offers an alternative framework based on an analysis of how different socio-economic interests contend to shape foreign policy in ASEAN states and how these interests are able to organize politically to impose their preferences. The case study of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, a regional network of legislators campaigning for liberal-interventionist policies on Myanmar, shows how it is these forces, and not the mere presence or absence of formally democratic institutions, that govern the political space available to those seeking to transform ASEAN states' policies.     

Expert intervention: knowledge,violence and identity during the Algerian crisis, 1997–1998

Civil wars and humanitarian intervention became two of the most dominant security concerns of the 1990s and Algeria was one of the many sites where these discourses were played out, especially during the wave of massacres that claimed the lives of hundreds (if not thousands) of Algerian civilians between mid-1997 and early 1998. The internationalization of the Algerian Civil War was driven as much by the horrific violence as by a lack of certainty as to the identity of those perpetrating the massacres. The indeterminacy of violence in Algeria provided the warrant for experts to fill the void. Yet interpretations of the violence in Algeria, coupled with the generic logics of intra-national armed conflicts and the use of international coercive force for the protection of human rights, produced divergent problematizations of the crisis. This paper thus examines the ways in which Algeria was, and often was not, produced as a civil war and a humanitarian crisis by expert and scholarly knowledge and practice. Through an analysis of the exclusionary effects of the dominant understandings of political violence in Algeria, we are able to understand the conceptual impasse that faced international action against the massacres.     

Stateness problems or regime unification? Explaining obstacles to democratization in Burma/Myanmar

The fact that Myanmar is not democratic is too often taken as a given in international policy discourse without analysis as to why it has not democratized or what conditions might allow for democratization. Plausible theories to explain Burma's authoritarian politics include poor levels of economic development, colonial history, regional geopolitical factors, problems of state formation and the unification of the military. Determining which theories have the most explanatory power is important because different understandings of Burma's authoritarianism steer one toward some remedies and away from others. In this paper, I argue that problems of state formation – ‘stateness’ in one strand of the democratization literature – and ‘regime unification’ theories stand the best chance of explaining the lack of democracy in Myanmar. I examine the logic and evidence for each theory and conclude that while both explain some of the status quo, ‘stateness’ had more explanatory power before 1988 but in post-1988 Myanmar, ‘regime unification’ explains more.     

ASEAN and Northeast Asia: stakes and implications for the European Union–ASEAN partnership

During the immediate aftermath of the 1997 ASEAN crisis, instead of promoting a further “deepening” of the integration process, ASEAN has preferred enlarging its membership and has opened up to its Northeast Asian partners, Japan, China and South Korea. The mounting economic trade flows among those actors necessitates calls for the coherent creation of effective regional structures. China in particular, among the three mentioned countries, has come to the fore with its diplomatic strategies concerning the regional architecture. As results of these recent changes, the structure of power and the nature of the regional system are altering and ASEAN is going through a decisive transition. Taking into consideration the speed of the evolving framework with the enlargement of an East Asian Community, ASEAN would need a new political vision for the region, for the redefinition of its internal balance of power and for the elaboration of a clear approach toward external partners. Crucial problems affect the entire area such as deficit of democracy, wide development gaps among the East Asian countries, the widespread need for economic liberalisation and need for new human and regional security policies. The EU would play a fundamental role in addressing these problems and would be well inspired to avoid considering Southeast Asia as just a mere periphery of China.     

Meeting the Dalai Lama and perceptions of democracy in China: a quasi-natural experiment

How does the international human rights community affect the likelihood of democratization? Scholarship on Chinese citizens’ preferences about their political system has not explored the importance of the external environment, perhaps surprising given the extensive foreign pressure on China’s authoritarian system over the last 30 years. I use a quasi-natural experiment around the meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama in 2011 to examine the impact of foreign pressure on citizens’ perceptions of democracy in China in real time. I show that the meeting significantly increased the Chinese public’s belief that their country is democratic, with those of above average patriotism over 11 percentage points more likely to believe China is democratic in the five days following the meeting than before. The findings suggest that some kinds of external pressure may help to increase satisfaction with authoritarian rule, ultimately boosting autocrats’ ability to hold on to power.     

浅析东盟对缅甸政策的变化发展

1997年，东盟吸纳缅甸入盟后，对缅甸奉行“建设性接触”政策，反对联合国安理会介入缅甸问题，一度成为缅甸抵御西方压力的主要屏障。然而，进入21世纪以来，缅甸国内的一些原因，使东盟受到一定影响。面对来自美欧等西方国家的巨大压力，东盟一些成员国对缅甸问题有不同意见，要求东盟调整对缅政策的呼声层出不穷。     

试析东盟高度一体化及其对中国的影响

《东盟宪章》的顺利签署表明，东盟各国正在努力改变东盟的松散状态，试图将其建设成为更有凝聚力的地区实体。本文在考察中国的东南亚地区利益结构后认为，一个在经济上实现了内部高度整合，但在政治上仍旧保持内部多元决策机制的东盟较为符合中国的利益。即一个经济上强大但政治上较弱、经济上联系紧密但政治上相对松散的东盟对地区格局的冲击会相对较小。因此，对东盟当前的经济一体化进程，中国应持欢迎态度；但对东盟未来的政治安全一体化进程，中国应保持高度关注，并提早与东盟进行良性互动，以维护彼此的合理利益和地区稳定，防止出现某些负面效应。     

后危机时期的东盟国家经济

近年,东盟国家经济相继从衰退中复苏,逐渐摆脱国际金融危机的阴影。随着全球经济形势的动荡和增长趋缓,东盟国家的经济增长呈现出减缓的趋势。后危机时期,东盟国家积极调整宏观经济政策,加快经济转型和产业升级,推进区域经济一体化的进程。在新的国内外经济形势下,东盟国家经济发展将面临新的挑战。     

缅甸：军人执政的20年（1988～2008）的政治发展及趋势

自从1988年9月缅甸军人接管政权，建立“国家治安建设委员会”（1997年11月15日改名为“缅甸联邦和平与发展委员会”，以下简称“和发委”）以来，已有20年了。在当今世界，军人统治一个国家居然持续了长达20年的时间，可谓绝无仅有（如果从1962年3月奈温军人集团政变夺权算起，军人在缅甸的统治更是长达46年）。     

经济外交与中国—东盟区域合作:内涵、实践与效用

经济外交是中国—东盟自由贸易区建成后中国与东盟共同获取"正和"经济利益、化解地区内矛盾的一种新途径。本文从中国对东盟经济外交的实践着手,分析其对提升区域合作层次、构建中国和谐周边的作用,并探索性地指出中国在对东盟实施经济外交过程中几个值得关注的问题。     

Authoritarian bargaining in Burma/Myanmar

Despite the political controversy related to the authoritarian bargaining of Burma/Myanmar’s territorial conflicts, it is important to acknowledge the successes and admit the failures of the process of ceasefire negotiation and the national convention process of the Myanmar-government. Regardless of what we think of the Myanmar government, there can still be both good and bad elements in the process. This article will focus, as the general focus of this special issue suggests, on the negotiations between the central government and the ethnic groups on autonomy and territorial solutions in the peripheries of Burma/Myanmar.     

A humanitarian mission in line with human rights? Assessing Sophia,the EU’s naval response to the migration crisis

This article adds to our understanding of the role of norms in the European Union’s (EU) response to the migration crisis by conducting a critical assessment of the EU’s anti-smuggling naval mission “Sophia”. Is Sophia in line with the normative standards the EU has set for itself in its foreign policies? Conducting the analysis in two steps in line with the main criteria of a humanitarian foreign policy model – first exploring Sophia’s launch and then assessing Sophia’s in theatre behaviour – findings suggest that although concerns for migrants at sea mobilised the initial launch of the mission, the mission is not conducted in line with key human rights principles. As the operation mandate is amended and updated with new tasks, and as the EU-NATO in theatre cooperation increases, the EU is moving further away from what one would expect of a humanitarian foreign policy actor.     

The Construction of the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area: A Study of China's Active Involvement

The central argument of this paper is that China's economic diplomacy not only improves its political relations with ASEAN countries but also promotes regional economic co-operation and integration. This paper is organised into two parts. The first part starts with a review of Chinese foreign policy changes in order to show how Beijing adjusted its foreign policy to pursue its economic and political interests. It also examines China's political and institutional efforts to forge the coming Free Trade Area (FTA) with ASEAN. The second part studies China–ASEAN trade relations from three aspects: the adjustment of Chinese industrial structure, foreign direct investment to both sides and the formation of a production network with China at the centre. While difficulties and problems are unavoidable in the construction of CAFTA, with China's active efforts and the enhanced co-operation between China and ASEAN, the building of CAFTA is moving towards fulfilment.     

印度东向战略：进展、影响及应对

从20世纪90年代初至今,印度＂东向＂战略已经历了＂东向＂和＂东进＂两个阶段,其政策力度和影响越来越大。对中国而言,既有扩大合作、增进交流的机遇,也面临着经济竞争加剧、地缘政治压力加大的挑战。中国应当对其加以密切关注,发挥经贸大国优势,推动区域合作,加强与东盟的政治安全联系,积极应对周边地缘政治格局的新变化。     

How can opposition support authoritarianism? Lessons from Egypt

While many observers of politics in the Arab world hold that the emergence of political opposition would be a harbinger of democratization, this article argues that opposition can contribute to the stability and resilience of authoritarian regimes. Based on an empirical analysis of contemporary Egyptian politics, it is shown that, despite the repressive nature of the Egyptian state, political opposition has emerged in various societal contexts: political parties, human rights associations and a popular Islamist current. In order to understand this development, it is important to investigate authoritarian survival strategies ‘beyond coercion’. While militant resistance from radical Islamists has been successfully oppressed during the 1990s, the Egyptian incumbents reacted to the challenge of societal dissent by co-opting opposition forces. As a consequence, political opposition in Egypt serves functions entirely different from those in liberal democracies. It contributes to the legitimacy of the Egyptian state. Moreover, by tolerating controlled opposition, societal dissent can be better observed, channelled and moderated. From a more general perspective, political dissent exists in various settings: it prevails not only among opposition, but also within the political elite leading to a delicate juggling act of competing ideas and interests performed at the helm of the polity.     

2011年的缅甸:在改革中前进

2011年是缅甸政府向民选政府转型后的第一年,政治上,新的议会和政府成立后运转正常,同时继续积极推动政治改革;经济上,缅甸私有化进程加快,外贸和外资也出现了良好的增长势头;外交方面的进展尤为明显,与美国、欧盟等西方国家关系打破了僵局,与中国建立了全面战略合作伙伴关系,与印度、日本和东盟关系不断深化。