CIAO DATE: 02/2008
Volume: 80, Issue: 1
Spring 2007
East Asian Environmental Co-operation: Central Pessimism, Local Optimism
Sangbum Shin
This paper examines the regional environmental co-operation in East Asia at the local government level, focusing on the intercity environmental co-operation between the two cities in Japan and China—Kitakyushu and Dalian—as a case. Theoretically, this case demonstrates the dynamic nature of local government level environmental co-operation in the sense that all the three levels—government, local government, and private—are closely interconnected, and the major actors—the firms—play a role in shaping the outcome of intercity co-operation. Also, in terms of policy implication, this case is important not just for East Asian but also global environmental politics because it is the co-operation between cities in China and Japan—the two most important countries in East Asia that affect regional and global environmental protections efforts seriously. In order to investigate the reasons of success, and the dynamic nature of intercity environmental co-operation, this paper suggests a framework for analysis on the relationship between multiple dimensions of regional environmental co-operation, and then, examines the historical process and the details of the case and explains why this case has been remarkably successful and produced significant outcome. Finally, it draws some theoretical as well as policy implications of this case in terms of possibilities for and limitations of East Asian regional environmental co-operation in the future.Building Peace or Following the Leader? Japan's Peace Consolidation Diplomacy
Julie Gilson
In Japan, debates about the nature of peacekeeping contributions continue alongside questions regarding the relevance of Japan's constitution in the twenty-first century and the political implications of aid disbursement. This article seeks to illustrate how both Official Development Assistance and peacekeeping operations are being linked through Japan's "peace consolidation diplomacy." For historical reasons, the Japanese government has been unable to play a traditional peacekeeping role. At the same time, Japan's position as leading aid donor has received negative feedback from a recession-bound populous that now views key recipient countries as competitors rather than needy neighbours. As a result, issues pertaining to humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping and aid provision frequently overlap, as Japan searches for a means of playing a constructive international role commensurate with the expectations of the rest of the world and with Japan's own claim for a place on the permanent UN Security Council. This article examines Japanese debates surrounding the sending military personnel to crisis areas and the changing provision of aid, against a background of changing concepts of humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping and assistance. It illustrates how hte Japanese government utilizes a combined narrative of peacekeeping, humanitarian intervention and aid giving, in order simultaneously to soften the public response to sending peacekeepers and to respond to increasingly targeted international demands for a more substantial Japanese contribution to conflict resolution.Informed Consent and Mining Projects: A View from Papua New Guinea
Martha Macintyre
Free, prior and informed consent is increasingly perceived as a means of ensuring that people's human rights are respected and their interests protected. This paper explores issues arising in the context of gaining informed consent about mining projects from people who are citizens of a developing nation. Assumptions about rights, processes of negotiation, scientific knowledge and environmental degradation are often alien to the local people involved. Drawing on anthropological research in Papua New Guinea, the complex interactions between understandings of scientists, environmentalists, corporation managers and indigenous people are examined. The pragmatic problems of ensuring that informed consent is gained and that the human rights of local people are equitably protected are explored and some tentative solutions offered.An Incomplete Arc: Analyzing the Potential for Violent Conflict in the Republic of Vanuatu
Abby McLeod, Michael Morgan
Free, prior and informed consent is increasingly perceived as a means of ensuring that people's human rights are respected and their interests protected. This paper explores issues arising in the context of gaining informed consent about mining projects from people who are citizens of a developing nation. Assumptions about rights, processes of negotiation, scientific knowledge and environmental degradation are often alien to the local people involved. Drawing on anthropological research in Papua New Guinea, the complex interactions between understandings of scientists, environmentalists, corporation managers and indigenous people are examined. The pragmatic problems of ensuring that informed consent is gained and that the human rights of local people are equitably protected are explored and some tentative solutions offered.Bush and Asia: America's Evolving Relations with East Asia. Edited by Mark Beeson.
Paul Bowles
Asian Security Reassessed. Edited by Stephen Hoadley and Jürgen Rüland.
Thomas Stow Wilkins
China's Longest Campaign: Birth Planning in the People's Republic, 1949-2005. By Tyrene White.
Malcolm Thompson
Conflict and Innovation: Joint Ventures in China. Edited by Leo Douw and Chan Kwok-bun.
Nicholas C. Howson
Political Civilization and Modernization in China: The Political Context of China's Transformation. Edited by Yang Zhong and Shiping Hua.
Cheng Chen
Debating Political Reform in China: Rule of Law vs. Democratization. Edited by Suisheng Zhao.
Suzanne Ogden
Doing Fieldwork in China. Edited by Maria Heimer and Stig Thorgersen.
Amy Hanser
The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856-1873. By David G. Atwill.
Beth E. Notar
Precious Steppe: Mongolian Nomadic Pastoralists in Pursuit of the Market. By Ole Bruun.
David Sneath
Japan's Relations with China: Facing a Rising Power. Edited by Peng Er Lam.
Peter Van Ness
Environmental Policy in Japan. Edited by Hidefumi Imura and Miranda A. Schreurs.
Hiroshi Ohta
Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry are Reforming Japanese Capitalism. By Steven K. Vogel.
Gregory Jackson
Japan after Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present. Edited by Tomiko Yoda and Harry Harootunian.
Florian Coulmas
Perspectives on Work, Employment and Society in Japan. By Peter Matanle and Wim Lunsing.
George Olcott
Japan's Dual Civil Society: Members without Advocates. By Robert Pekkanen.
Lynne Y. Nakano
Japan's Agricultural Policy Regime. By Aurelia George Mulgan.
Kyoko Sato
Japanese Education and the Cram School Business: Functions, Challenges and Perspectives of the Juku. By Marie Hojlund Roesgaard.
Mamoru Tsukada
Shinkansen: From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan. By Christopher P. Hood.
Loren Siebert
Suicidal Honor: General Nogi and the Writings of Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki. By Doris G. Bargen.
Harald Salomon
Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era: Soviet-DPRK Relations and the Roots of North Korean Despotism, 1953-1964. By Balázs Szalontai.
Kathryn Weathersby
Internal Displacement in South Asia. Edited by Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Samir Kumar Das.
Alan B. Anderson
Transnational Migration and the Politics of Identity. Edited by Meenakshi Thapan.
Linda K. Richter
India's New Middle Class: Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform. By Leela Fernandes.
James Matson
Minorities and Police in India. Edited by Asghar Ali Engineer and Amarjit S. Narang.
Ian Talbot
The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History. By Norman G. Owen.
Katharine McGregor
Myanmar's Foreign Policy: Domestic Influences and International Implications. By Jurgen Haacke.
Josef Silverstein
The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej. By Paul M. Handley.
James Ockey
The Way that Lives in the Heart: Chinese Popular Religion and Spirit Mediums in Penang, Malaysia. By Jean DeBernardi.
Vineeta Sinha
A History of Modern Indonesia. By Adrian Vickers.
Trevor Preston
Laskar Jihad: Islam, Militancy, and the Quest for Identity in Post-New Order Indonesia. By Noorhaidi Hasan.
Robert W. Hefner
Pirates in Paradise: A Modern History of Southeast Asia's Maritime Marauders. By Stefan Eklof.
Eric Tagliacozzo
Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'État in Indonesia. By John Roosa.
Vedi Hadiz
The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia. By Barbara Watson Andaya.
Tamara L. Loos
Compromised Jurisprudence: Native Title Cases since Mabo. By Lisa Strelein.
Jean G. Zorn
Political Parties in the Pacific Islands. Edited by Roland Rich, with Luke Hambly and Michael G. Morgan.
Anita Jowitt
The Meaning of Whitemen: Race and Modernity in the Orokaiva Cultural World. By Ira Bashkow.
Aletta Biersack
East by South: China in the Australasian Imagination. Edited by Charles Ferrall, Paul Millar and Keren Smith.
Xavier Pons
Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts. Edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney.
Toon van Meijl
Museums, Anthropology and Imperial Exchange. By Amiria J. M. Henare.
Ilana Gershon
From Urban Enclave to Ethnic Suburb: New Asian Communities in Pacific Rim Countries. Edited by Wei Li.
Wardlow Friesen