Notes and news

Russia and Asia have an ambiguous relationship. More than half of Russia is geographically in Asia and much of its history, too. Peter the Great switched Russia's main focus to Europe. But by the middle of the 19^th century the “Slavophiles” were contesting that “Westernising” view as the Russian Empire expanded. After World War II, the USSR played an important ideological role in Asia, until the failure of the invasion of Afghanistan. The ensuing collapse of the USSR resulted in a smaller, much more “European” Russia, which the West was nonetheless not eager to embrace. Today, the dynamic economies of Asia offer opportunities, not least as a market for Russia's energy exports. But the legacy of Peter the Great lives on.     

“Great and Powerful Friends of Yesteryear”: Australia's Dilemma with “East of Suez”, 1967–71

Great Britain's decision to withdraw its forces from Southeast Asia by the mid-1970s created uncertainty for those living in the region. The potential loss of British presence led Australia to attempt to discourage Britain from leaving, while also recsognising recognising the decision as an opportunity to re-evaluate Australia's strategic outlook in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Scholars have treated Asia and the Pacific as two regions with distinct experiences related to withdrawal. Some address changing Anglo-Australian relations but include little, or no, mention of the Pacific territories. Others, writing about the Pacific, focused more the individual paths taken by each island than on connecting the larger process of decolonisation in the Pacific to the one in Asia. This article pairs Australia's Strategic Basis of Defence papers with documentary evidence across multiple departments in Canberra to understand how British withdrawal from east of Suez connected Australian concerns about security in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. By connecting the two areas through Australian interests, the withdrawal from east of Suez can be understood as a catalyst for Australia's pursuit of a distinctive role within its neighbourhood.     

Maritime Security in the Region: SCS and ECS as Key Arenas for Converging Political Interests

This article examines the situations in the South China Sea (SCS) and East China Sea (ECS) and the reasons for recent political and strategic attention. As background it reviews the history of maritime activities in Asia where there was no real maritime Great Power with continuity. It then discusses the latest situations in the ECS around the Senkaku Islands, where China's Coast Guard vessels and fishing boats have made occasional incursions into Japanese waters, and the relatively-less understood Scarborough Shoal and the Pratas Islands in the SCS that have strategic significance in a future powerbalance in the SCS. The article then notes the US rebalance to Asia and the interpretation of the principle of Freedom of Navigation. It continues with the strategic and diplomatic measures and operational and tactical measures that Japan should take. It concludes noting that Japan and the US must prepare a wide range of measures in advance to regain and maintain maritime security and stability.     

SIACHEN GLACIER,THE FULCRUM OF THE GREAT GAME: COLONEL ‘BULL’ KUMAR’S PERSPECTIVES

This article, written by Prateek Joshi in close collaboration with Colonel Narender “Bull” Kumar, discusses the development of the conflict over the Siachen Glacier between India and Pakistan. It sets out the Siachen Conflict in the broad framework of the Great Game and explains the crucial role of Colonel Narender “Bull” Kumar's Siachen expeditions in rekindling this old flashpoint in High Asia. Based on Colonel Kumar's two expeditions to the Siachen Glacier region, namely the Teram Kangri expedition in 1978 and the Siachen expedition in 1981, it discusses the perspectives regarding the dispute and its relation to reviving a consciousness of the Great Game. The first perspective discusses Colonel Kumar's expeditions in light of the Indo-Pak conflict as these two visits became the precursor to Operation Meghdoot, following which the Indian Army occupied the Siachen Glacier in 1984. The second perspective discusses a crucial cartographic blank which was filled only after Colonel Kumar's Siachen expedition.     

The views of the Chinese statesman on the par Eastern problem (1921)

The phrase “The Great Game” was first used in the context of Russia and Central Asia by the ill-fated Captain Conolly in 1840. For Conolly, the game metaphor signified a contest in which the Russians were Britain's potential opponents, while the Central Asians were her immediate ones. Indeed Conolly, like Thorburn, a later writer, seems even to have envisaged Russia as Britain's partner in the work of civilizing Asia. Boulger, tried to use the phrase to signify Anglo-Russian confrontation but interestingly the phrase was little used in the literature on Central Asia until Kipling's “Kim” endowed it with a popularity and the implication of great power rivalry which it had not previously enjoyed. In fact widespread use only came after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, though “The Great Game” is now in ever more frequent use to signify American/Russian rivalry. Kipling's use has triumphed over Conolly's.     

Violent Uprooting and Forced Migration: A Demographic Analysis of the Greek Populations of AsiaMinor,Pontus and Eastern Thrace

This article systematically examines the historical demography of Greek refugees from Asia Minor, Pontus and Eastern Thrace from the beginning of the 1910s until the aftermath of the signing of the Convention of Lausanne and even later until 1928 when the first general census after the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922 took place in Greece. In this context, the article focuses firstly on a comparative examination of the available sources concerning the number of Greeks living in Asia Minor, Pontus and Eastern Thrace before the outbreak of the First World War, and secondly on the number of refugees pouring into Greece before and after the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922. It is argued that the Greeks of Asia Minor and Pontus suffered numerous losses because of the persecution by the Turkish authorities and because of their violent uprooting from their homelands. On the other hand, it is argued that the Greek population of Eastern Thrace was in general much less affected by the Turkish atrocities despite the fact that even this population was obliged to seek refuge in Greece after 1922.     

Power Politics Behind the Transforming Geopolitics in East Asia

Current geopolitical dynamics in East Asia is generated by the US rebalancing and China’s counterbalancing. The US rebalancing has so far ended in an encircling of China, whereas China counteracts to extend into the seas and the lands as typified by the Belt and Road Initiative and assertive activities in the South China Sea. China under Xi Jinping’s leadership has set up a new guideline of ‘great power foreign policy’ (大国外交) to realize Xi Jinping’s ambitious vision of ‘China dream’. As delivered in the ‘New Model of Great Power Relations’, China under Xi Jinping’s leadership seeks clearly for ‘regional dominance’, while for ‘global balance’ with the USA. With rebalancing, however, the USA seeks to restore power balance in East Asia by adding up to military and economic resources already deployed there. By doing so, the USA aims to achieve its strategic goal of ‘regional balance’, while maintaining ‘global dominance’. These two distinct strategic goals, regional dominance and global balance for China and regional balance and global dominance for the USA, interact to result in currently transforming geopolitics in East Asia.     

A failure of imagination: R.G. Casey and Australian plans for counter-subversion in Asia, 1954-1956

This article is a study of some aspects of the non-military response of the Menzies government to the decolonisation of the European empires and the cold war in Asia. In the mid-1950s R.G. Casey, the Minister for External Affairs, was given responsibility by the cabinet to develop a programme of Colombo Plan - educational, cultural, propaganda, intelligence and political initiatives - which the Menzies government hoped would influence the outcome of the cold war in Asia. This article suggests that an examination of these government initiatives reveals some important insights into the nature of the Menzies government's understanding of and response to the revolutionary changes which swept through Asia in the decade after the Second World War.     

GEORGE W. BUSH AND ASIA: IN THE SHADOW OF 11 SEPTEMBER

Traditionally seen as a President consumed by the war on terror, George W. Bush is frequently portrayed as being relatively uninterested in Asia, and unable to outline a vision or a strategy to China, America’s Asian allies and Asian multilateral mechanisms. This article will revisit Bush’s policy on Asia and show a president who guided the United States with a policy that balanced the need to combat global terrorism and locate a focus on Asia. He faced the dilemmas of building cooperative relations with a rising China while trying to foster American alliances and partnerships in Asia, and managing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Utilizing qualitative content analysis as the main research method, the article will demonstrate that the Bush administration had not a lack of focus on Asia and that Bush’s diplomacy to Asia should be recognized as one of the most significant achievements of his presidency.     

Economic Outlook for Asia and the Role of the Asian Development Bank

This article reviews the history of establishing the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with an original 31 members in 1966. It goes on to describe the changes that have occurred in Asia in the intervening years during which membership has grown to 67, including 48 from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside. It also discusses the economic outlook in Asia and the relationship between ADB and People's Republic of China. The article then gives an overview of the current organization and operations of the ADB. This article concludes by eight conditions for development that make countries reach the upper-middle-income status.     

History,Memory and Commemoration: The Iraqi Revolution of 1920 and the Process of Nation Building in Iraq

The Great Iraqi Revolution of 1920 was actually a series of local, mostly Shi‘ite, uprisings against the British forces which had occupied Iraq during the First World War. Even though it was squashed by the British, it has been established since then in the Iraqi collective memory as a war of independence and a formative event of Iraqi nationalism, symbolizing the unity of the Iraqi people, their solidarity and patriotic spirit. This article tries to show how the Great Iraqi Revolution was commemorated and remembered through time in order to provide better understanding about how Iraqis see themselves and their past.     

民主在东南亚的前提条件和发展趋势

20世纪50、60年代民主政体在东南亚国家的实行均以流产而告终,威权主义代替民主政体对东南亚国家的稳定和发展起到了巨大的作用.本文认为"民主"之树移植容易,但是开花结果却需要许多前提条件.本文从经济、文化和社会基础三个角度分析东南亚国家实行"民主"所需的相应条件.并对"民主"在东南亚的发展趋势作了简短预测.     

Introduction

The apocalyptic writings of Victor Eugene Kroemer (1883–1930) provide us with an insight into millenarian responses to the outbreak of the Great War, a subject that has been little noticed in research on Australian religious history. This article, however, will also show that a study of Kroemer's occult beliefs can illuminate larger themes in the Australian cultural response to the war. Kroemer's interpretation of the war as an essentially spiritual conflict between the forces of Zion (Great Britain) and Babylon (Germany) was not confined to the religiously unorthodox, nor did his belief in the appearance of battlefield angels and other supernatural phenomena fail to find echoes among more conventional believers. Much research in Australia and overseas in the last thirty years has challenged the notion of the Great War as a modernising and secularising experience and this article, through a study of a single Australian author and activist, draws attention to the quest of occult authors in Australia and Great Britain to explain the “world crisis” in spiritual terms to a range of audiences.     

Post-War Japan and Asianism

In recent years there has been lively debate over the concept of an Asian community. Historically, however, an Asianism that espouses the notion of “Asia for the Asians” has been around for a long time. This article examines post-war Japan's return to Asia from the perspective of Asianism. The Asianism of post-war Japan was manifested in Japan's eagerness to advance into the vacuum created by the withdrawal of the Western European nations from Southeast Asia. However, this came up against Asia's own brand of Asianism, which emphasized independence first and foremost. It was the loss of its underpinnings by this latter brand of Asianism, as from 1970 onward, colonial rule and the political leaders who shouldered independence disappeared from the face of Southeast Asia, that lent impetus to Japan's advance into the region.     

两岸关系中的东南亚因素

两岸关系始终受到国际因素的影响 ,其中东南亚因素起的是间接作用 ,表现为三个阶段 :中华人民共和国成立前后至朝鲜战争爆发为第一阶段 ;第二阶段是蒋家父子在台湾当政时期 ;李登辉上台为第三阶段。本文就这三个阶段中东南亚因素的影响逐一进行分析。     

Japan-Asia economic relations: Trade, investment, and the economic crisis

Japan has been and will continue to be an important economic player in the Asian region through its internationalization policy involving trade, foreign investments, aid, technical and other forms of economic cooperation. More recently, despite its own domestic problems, Japan has extended financial and other forms of assistance and support to the Asian economies which have been hit by the economic crisis. As it is in its interests that the Asian region survives and recover, Japan will indeed continue to lend a helping hand to Asia, either through unilateral or multilateral forms of assistance or both. Due to growing interdependence, Asia needs Japan and Japan needs Asia. This article analyzes Japan's economic relations with Asia. In particular, it hopes to present an overview of Japan’s involvement in Asia through trade and investments prior to the Asian economic crisis which began in July 1997. Moreover, this article provides an assessment of the crisis and identifies Japan’s responses and involvement towards the economic recovery of the crisis-hit economies in the region. The article draws from earlier versions of various papers presented at conferences and seminars in Washington, D.C. (1997), Japan and Mexico (1998), and Singapore and Thailand (1999).     

危机幕后的东亚地区秩序分析

本文认为,东亚当前出现"大战不犯,小乱不断"状况的根源在于新旧嬗变中的地区秩序远未就域内各国的政治安排形成制度化设计,在于东亚地区秩序的"有气无力"。历史上,东亚地区秩序曾经历了天朝礼治秩序、条约秩序和冷战下"自主"秩序三种形态。依据历史脉络的梳理,本文认为有美国、中国、日本等七个要素影响着东亚地区秩序。为明确这些要素的特征及相互作用,本文提出了反映国家和国家关系总体形态的"锥体"模型。美国是影响东亚地区秩序的决定性变量,利用"锥体"模型,本文认为,美国现实主义的热情与贪婪,地缘战略的坚持与冷静,相互依赖的推动与困惑等特征共同勾画着东亚战略。中国的复兴是影响东亚地区秩序的突出变量,其显著特征在于整体性的成长。日本"正常化"是影响东亚地区秩序的另一主要变量,其特征在于日本自身的"二重性"。朝鲜半岛、台湾、东南亚由于其关键性和不稳定性而成为东亚地区秩序的缝合口。此外,俄罗斯要素也不可或缺。在美国要素与中国、日本等要素的复杂互动中,中美关系是东亚地区秩序的主轴,作为其中一方的中国,如何把握自身不断增长的力量至关重要。     

MIXED BLOOD: DISCOVERING EURASIANS

A personal journey through the literature by a former journalist with Anglo-Chinese grandsons. He examines Eurasian origins starting from the time of Alexander the Great and notes the way in which the relatively benign view of the early French, Dutch and British colonialists gradually hardened-an attitude reflected in, and justified by, some fairly questionable intellectual theories. Much of his focus is on India and the position of Anglo-Indians who, interestingly, proved that doubts about their loyalty were not well founded. In employment terms they would never be at the top, though equally they were not at the bottom. But the game changed as independence spread through Asia and many Anglo-Indians and other Eurasians left to lead their lives elsewhere.     

Rethinking Colonialism and the Origins of the Developmental State in East Asia

Previous studies on economic development in East Asia focus exclusively on the recent period (since the 1960s) and posit that East Asian “miracles” were largely a result of the state's exceptional capacity to implement consistent industrial policy. Yet, they neglect the question of the origins of the developmental state. To confront this neglect, this article makes a macro-historical comparison between Northeast and Southeast Asia, highlighting colonialism, the role of income inequality, and subsequent socio-economic transformations. It is argued that a crucial historical phase for new economic trajectory was the decolonisation period when East Asian countries had an opportunity to break away from negative colonial legacies. This article sheds new light on the ways in which colonialism shapes long-term economic development in East Asia.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
REVIEW ESSAY: I sraeli N ational S ecurity : A N ew C onceptualization
The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force , by Martin Van Creveld.
Knives, Tanks and Missles: Israel's Security Revolution , by Eliot A. Cohen, Michael Eisenstadt and A.J. Bacevich.
Israel and the Bomb , by Avner Cohen.
Rabin and Israel's National Security , by Efraim Inbar.
National Security: The Israeli Experience , by Yisrael Tal
Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination , by Ehud Sprinzak.
The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building , by Barry Rubin.
Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem , by Amir S. Chesin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed.
Islamic Politics in Palestine , by Beverly Milton-Edwards.
Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege , by Amira Hass. New York:
The Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: 1991-96 and Beyond , by Helena Cobban.
Bring Down the Walls. Lebanon's Post-War Challenge , by Carole H. Dagher.
Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia , by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac.