1,721,045 research outputs found
Global and Post-western IR, Area Studies, and the Rise of China: Promises and Limits
No full textEast Asia is increasingly at the centre of debates among IR scholars. China’s political, economic, and military ascendency is increasingly considered as a crucial test case for main approaches to IR. Despite this renewed attention, mainstream theories employed to analyse contemporary Asia are still remarkably Euro-centric. A wave of studies has argued in favour of a broad “decolonization” of theoretical concepts used to analyse East Asia as well as other regions. These efforts have produced several distinct research agendas. Firstly, critical and post-colonial theorists have worked on the par destruens, highlighting the inherent Eurocentrism of many IR concepts and theories. Secondly, scholars as Buzan and Acharya have promoted the idea of Global IR, seeking to advance a “non-Western” and non Euro-centric research agenda. This agenda has found fertile ground especially in China, where several scholars have tried to promote a Chinese school of IR. This chapter has three main purposes. Firstly, it briefly explores the issue of Eurocentrism in IR studies dedicated to East Asia. Secondly, it maps the theoretical debates aimed at overcoming it, looking in particular at the “Global IR” research programme and the so-called Chinese School. Finally, it sketches a few other possible avenues of research for a very much needed cooperation between Global IR and area studies
Conclusions: US Foreign Policy Under Trump, Years of Upheaval
No full textThe election of Donald Trump has paved the way for a period of
uncertainty regarding the US commitment to uphold and strengthen the current
international rule-based order. This chapter states that the rise of populism that
favoured the ascent of Trump has several fundamental consequences. Firstly, liberal
internationalism and Wilsonianism, who constituted the basic ideational founda-
tions for the US foreign policy narrative, appear to be rejected as the intellectual
product of a distant cosmopolitan elite. Secondly, the Trump administration seems
to rely on Jacksonianism to look for alternative ideas to reinterpret the US role in
the current international order. Finally, this led to the rise of a “ A-moral transac-
tionalism ” , an approach that is likely to lead to put into doubt several key pillars of
the US international engagement to obtain short-term economic gains
The US Rebalancing and the Process of Regionalization in the Asia-Pacific
No full textThis chapter analyses the legacy of the Pivot to Asia on the processes of
region-building in the Asia-Paci fi c region, looking at the normative content, geo-
graphic shape and competition for leadership associated with them. The strategy of
rebalancing aimed to consolidate a Trans-Pacific form of regional order, rooted in
Washington ’ s leadership and free market capitalism, and attempted to prevent the
rise of Sino-centric regional order, based on Chinese leadership and “ State capi-
talist ” practices. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) represented a key pillar of that
strategy. The chapter concludes that a reversal of the strategy of rebalancing,
particularly in the realm of regional economic governance, might lead to a pro-
gressive decline of the American in fl uence in the region
The rise of China between Global IR and area studies: an agenda for cooperation
Full text linkEast Asia is increasingly at the centre of debates among International Relations (IR) scholars. China’s pol-
itical, economic, and military ascendency is increasingly considered as a crucial test case for main
approaches to IR. Despite this renewed attention, mainstream theories employed to analyse contemporary
Asia are still remarkably Euro-centric. A wave of studies has argued in favour of a broad ‘decolonization’ of
theoretical concepts used to analyse East Asia as well as other regions. These efforts have produced several
distinct research agendas. Firstly, critical and post-colonial theorists have worked on the par destruens,
highlighting the inherent Euro-centrism of many IR concepts and theories. Secondly, scholars such as
Buzan and Acharya have promoted the idea of Global IR, seeking to advance a ‘non-Western’ and
non-Euro-centric research agenda. This agenda has found fertile ground especially in China, where several
scholars have tried to promote a Chinese School of IR. This article has three main purposes. Firstly, it
briefly explores the issue of Eurocentrism in IR studies dedicated to East Asia. Secondly, it maps the the-
oretical debates aimed at overcoming it, looking in particular at the ‘Global IR’ research programme and
the so-called Chinese School. Finally, it sketches a few other possible avenues of research for a very much
needed cooperation between Global IR and area studies
Japan, South Korea and the rise of a networked security architecture in East Asia
Full text linkThis article explains Japan’s and South Korea’s role in the transition from the hub-
and-spokes alliance system to a networked security architecture in East Asia. It is
argued that China’s contestation of the rules-based international order in East Asia
has been confronted by East Asian states through a mixture of resistance and accom-
modation. From a Japanese point of view, Beijing’s ascendency is considered par-
ticularly disruptive for the regional order. Consequently, Japan has become a central
hub in the development of the networked security architecture enacting two comple-
mentary strategies: the consolidation of the alliance with the United States and the
creation of new and less binding forms of bilateral, minilateral and multilateral secu-
rity partnerships with Asian allies. By contrast, since Seoul considers China as an
essential partner for the stabilisation of the Korean Peninsula, it has played a more
peripheral role in the development of this regional networking dynamic
Recensione di D. Wang, The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present , New York, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021 (seconda edizione).
Full text linkIl libro di Dong Wang The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, in particolare questa seconda edizione aggiornata e rivista, costituisce un importante contributo allo studio delle relazioni tra Cina e Stati Uniti. Rappresenta inoltre una lettura molto utile sia per specialisti della storia delle
relazioni tra i due paesi e sia per gli storici dell’Asia e della politica estera americana. Tuttavia, può essere anche considerato un’introduzione accessibile per lettori che cercano un quadro complessivo ma sofisticato su questi temi
Free and Open Indo-Pacific, features and limits of a model of regional order.
Full text linkThe competition between two models of regional order, a US-led Free and Open Indo Pacific, and a Sino-centric order led by Beijing, is at the heart of contemporary great power politics. This article discusses the main features and the main limits of FOIP as promoted by the Trump and Biden administrations. FOIP entails a coherent approach based on an attempt to promote US leadership, cooperation among regional democracies and the centrality of international law. However, significantly different positions compared with local allies and partners on the role and the status of China and different perspectives on multilateralism and sovereignty might undermine the US efforts to build consensus around its project of regional order
Ascesa e declino della strategia americana dell'engagement della Cina
No full textNegli ultimi cinquant’anni i rapporti tra Stati Uniti
e Cina sono stati caratterizzati dalla strategia
dell’engagement, inaugurata dalla visita di Nixon a
Pechino nel 1972. Durante gli ultimi decenni della
guerra fredda questa strategia mirava soprattutto a
bilanciare l’influenza sovietica in Asia. Con la fine
della guerra fredda, l’obiettivo americano diventa
quello di favorire un’apertura del regime cinese at-
traverso la creazione di legami commerciali e la
partecipazione ad organizzazioni internazionali.
Nell’ultimo decennio, l’emergere di una visione ci-
nese dell’ordine internazionale, la chiusura politica
promossa da Xi Jinping e il timore americano di
perdere il ruolo di leadership globale hanno causa-
to la transizione verso una fase competitiva, defini-
ta “competizione tra grandi potenze”
Trump’s Mixed Signals toward North Korea and US-led Alliances in East Asia
No full textThe relationship between the Trump administration and the regime in Pyongyang has gone through two distinct phases: a period of crisis and confrontation, roughly corresponding to the year 2017, and a period of diplomacy and détente in the first half of 2018, which culminated in the Singapore summit of June 2018. During both phases, Trump’s approach has been characterised by a high degree of unpredictability and the use of ‘mixed signals’. As a consequence, while the US achieved a significant objective in 2018, namely a reduction in tension and risk of conflict, this came at a considerable cost, especially in terms of the solidity of the US-led alliances in East Asia
The EU–Japan partnership in the shadow of China: Natural allies or untapped potential?
No full textThe EU–Japan Partnership in the Shadow of China represents a very timely and very significant contribution to the literature on EU-Japan cooperation. The volume is one of the most relevant research outputs of a the EJARN (The European Japan Advanced Research Network), a network of scholars that since 2007 has promoted policy relevant research on Japanese politics, economics and security as well as explored possible avenues for cooperation between the European Union and Japan.
This edited volume is a detailed and informative yet accessible collection of essays analysing the current state of EU-Japan cooperation. Moreover, the volume explores policies promoted by Tokyo and Brussels to face the current crisis of the liberal international order and the key challenges stemming from it, from the rise of China, to the Trump presidency, to Brexit
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