The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Crises of 2004, 2010, and 2012: A Study of Japanese-Chinese Crisis Management

The diplomatic situation between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands has become increasingly precarious over the past decade. Weak diplomatic ties and lack of trust between the two nations has made a clash not only more likely, but also unlikely to be effectively contained. This article compares the events and management of three diplomatic crises concerning the islands, including the deportation of Chinese activists who landed on the islands in 2004, the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain who collided with a Japan Coast Guard vessel in 2010, and the 2012 nationalization of three of the islands by the Japanese central government. These case studies reveal the lack of reliable high-level communication mechanisms between Tokyo and Beijing, diminishing back-channel diplomacy and the asymmetrical influence of each respective Foreign Ministry as just a few of the structural barriers to effective Sino-Japanese crisis management.     

Limits of ethnofederalism and local political autonomy arrangements: Continuing violence in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts of Assam

This article analyzes the continuing interethnic and anti-state violence in Assam, India after the creation of the semi-autonomous Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) in 2003. We argue that this institutional arrangement, as an “innovative” model of ethnofederalism and political autonomy, has been unsuccessful in effectively preventing continued violence. We identify several dynamics resulting from the creation of the BTAD that contribute to its ineffectiveness, including the emergence of parochial and militarized Bodo ruling cliques, competitive radicalization between Bodo political elites competing in insular electoral constituencies, the inability to co-opt and integrate factionalized Bodo militants, reinvigorated non-Bodo activism and communalism, and the increased politicization of land. The extreme and multi-faceted “ethnic” diversity found in India’s Northeast, and its aggressive political expression at the local level, differentiates this region from other parts of India where ethnofederalism has been comparatively more successful for conflict mitigation. Thus, the prospects for successful ethnofederalism are area-specific.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory , by Bhikhu Parekh
Multicultural Questions , edited by Christian Joppke and Steven Lukes
Peoples, Cultures and Nations in Political Philosophy , by Paul Gilbert
Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain , by David Mason
Citizenship and Immigration in Postwar Britain , by Randall Hansen
The Ashdown Diaries , vol. 1: 1988–1997 , by Paddy Ashdown
Diaries: Into Politics , by Alan Clark
Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography , by Michael Heseltine
Left Behind: Lessons from Labour's Heartland , by Peter Kilfoyle
Ann Widdecombe: Right from the Beginning , by Nicholas Kochan
William Hague: In His Own Right , by Jo-Anne Nadler
Factionalism in Chinese Communist Politics , by Jing Huang
Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the Chinese Communist Party , by Xiaobo Lu
Late Victorian Holocausts: El Ni·o Famines and the Making of the Third World , by Mike Davis
Going to the Wars , by Max Hastings
Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe , by Alec Stone Sweet
No Place Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey through the American South , by Gary Younge
Parliament under Blair , by Peter Riddell
New Labour in Power , edited by David Coates and Peter Lawler
New Labour and Thatcherism , by Richard Heffernan
The Retreat of Social Democracy , by John Callaghan. Manchester University Press
Labour's First Century , edited by Duncan Tanner, Pat Thane and Nick Tiratsoo
The Labour Party: A Centenary History , edited by Brian Brivati and Richard Heffernan