Publication Year: 2021
Russia in the Indo-Pacific: New Approaches to Russian Foreign Policy
Abstract: This volume zones in on Russia’s relations with the Indo-Pacific region through the lens of theoretical pluralism, presenting alternatives to the mainstream Realist view of Russia as a major power using geopolitical strategies to establish itself.
Russia in the Indo-Pacific is an understudied topic that needs a fresh perspective. Contributors to this volume are based across Russia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the USA, drawing on a range of multinational perspectives and theoretical approaches encompassing realism and liberalism, constructivism and the English school of international relations. Reflecting a trend of internationalization in the Russian study of IR, such theoretical pluralism could facilitate Russian contributions to emerging global IR theory.
Russia in the Indo-Pacific contributes towards a more intelligible common discourse in the Indo-Pacific, of interest to students and scholars of Sino-Russian relations, Indo-Pacific international relations, and international relations theory. It will also be of interest to policymakers and general readers following foreign policy and economic trends in the Indo-Pacific who want to better understand Russia’s role.
Publication Year: 2021
Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific: The Changing Profile of International Relations
Abstract: This book explores how the Quad Plus mechanism is set to reshape the global multilateral economic and security co-operations between Quad partner countries and the rest of the world.
With the Quad partners – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – seeing deteriorating ties with China, the book provides a holistic understanding of the reasons why Quad Plus matters and what it means for the post-COVID Indo-Pacific and Asian order. It goes beyond the existing literature of the global Post-COVID reality and examines how Quad Plus can grow and find synergy with national and multilateral Indo-Pacific initiatives. The chapters analyze the mechanism’s uncharacteristic yet active approach of including countries like South Korea, Israel, Brazil, New Zealand and ASEAN/Vietnam for their successful handling of the pandemic crisis, thereby reshaping the new world’s geopolitical vision.
A unique study focused solely on the intricacies and the broader dialogue of the ‘Quad Plus’ narrative, the book caters to strategic audiences as well as academics researching International Relations, Politics, and Indo-Pacific and Asian Studies.
Publication Year: 2021
America and the Indo-Pacific- Trump and Beyond
Abstract: This book offers an extensive account of Donald Trump’s foreign policy record in the Indo-Pacific region. Set against the backdrop of Trump’s policy of sustained US confrontation with China, it recounts his administration’s efforts to shore up America’s position with the Indo-Pacific strategy. It also reviews Trump’s record with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and the South Asian subregion in context of the ‘great power competition’ between China and the United States. Amidst the ongoing conversations on the declining currency of American internationalism, the volume showcases the seeming insularity of the Indo-Pacific region from forces that are informing an America in retreat. In noting Trump’s record to have been a consequential one, the authors also offer insights into the prospects for US policy continuity under Joe Biden. This timely book will be of great interest to scholars, teachers, and students of politics and international relations, Asia studies, US-China studies, area studies, foreign policy, maritime studies, and world politics. It is a recommended read for all watchers of US foreign policy and the evolving US-China rivalry.
Publication Year: 2022
Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program
Abstract: China is now the lender of first resort for much of the developing world, but Beijing has fueled speculation among policymakers, scholars, and journalists by shrouding its grant-giving and lending activities in secrecy. Introducing a systematic and transparent method of tracking Chinese development projects around the world, this book explains Beijing’s motives and analyzes the intended and unintended effects of its overseas investments. Whereas China almost exclusively provided aid during the twentieth century, its twenty-first century transition from ‘benefactor’ to ‘banker’ has had far-reaching impacts in low-income and middle-income countries that are not widely understood. Its use of debt rather than aid to bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects creates new opportunities for developing countries to achieve rapid socio-economic gains, but it has also introduced major risks, such as corruption, political capture, and conflict. This book will be of interest to policymakers, students and scholars of international political economy, Chinese politics and foreign policy, economic development, and international relations.
Publication Year: 2020
China as a Twenty-First-Century Naval Power
Abstract: Xi Jinping has made his ambitions for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) perfectly clear, there is no mystery what he wants, first, that China should become a “great maritime power” and secondly, that the PLA “become a world-class armed force by 2050.” He wants this latter objective to be largely completed by 2035. China as a Twenty-First-Century Naval Power focuses on China’s navy and how it is being transformed to satisfy the “world class” goal.
Beginning with an exploration of why China is seeking to become such a major maritime power, author Michael McDevitt first explores the strategic rationale behind Xi’s two objectives. China’s reliance on foreign trade and overseas interests such as China’s Belt and Road strategy. In turn this has created concerns within the senior levels of China’s military about the vulnerability of its overseas interests and maritime life-lines. is a major theme. McDevitt dubs this China’s “sea lane anxiety” and traces how this has required the PLA Navy to evolve from a “near seas”-focused navy to one that has global reach; a “blue water navy.” He details how quickly this transformation has taken place, thanks to a patient step-by-step approach and abundant funding. The more than 10 years of anti-piracy patrols in the far reaches of the Indian Ocean has acted as a learning curve accelerator to “blue water” status.
McDevitt then explores the PLA Navy’s role in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. He provides a detailed assessment of what the PLAN will be expected to do if Beijing chooses to attack Taiwan potentially triggering combat with America’s “first responders” in East Asia, especially the U.S. Seventh Fleet and U.S. Fifth Air Force.
He conducts a close exploration of how the PLA Navy fits into China’s campaign plan aimed at keeping reinforcing U.S. forces at arm’s length (what the Pentagon calls anti-access and area denial [A2/AD]) if war has broken out over Taiwan, or because of attacks on U.S. allies and friends that live in the shadow of China. McDevitt does not know how Xi defines “world class” but the evidence from the past 15 years of building a blue water force has already made the PLA Navy the second largest globally capable navy in the world. This book concludes with a forecast of what Xi’s vision of a “world-class navy” might look like in the next fifteen years when the 2035 deadline is reached.
Publication Year: 2020
The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific
Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is emerging as a vital lynch-pin in China’s efforts to establish a maritime and continental zone of influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific interrogates to what extent BRI represents an achievable vision of a China-centric order in Asia and explores its major security implications for the region. The contributions to this volume provide up-to-date analysis of the effect of BRI on the region’s foreign policy and alliance patterns, its connection to geo-economics and domestic Chinese politics, and the policy responses of key Indo-Pacific actors. While acknowledging that BRI remains prey to a variety of internal and exogenous shocks, the contributors conclude that at the very least BRI will continue to disrupt the existing alignments of economic and strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific and that on this minimal basis BRI will likely be judged a success by China. For regional actors, however, the BRI simultaneously enhances choice while presenting strategic and economic risks of greater dependency on China – a dilemma intensified by the disruptive effects of the Trump administration on regional confidence in the longevity of American commitments and leadership.
Publication Year: 2020
China’s Influence and the Center-periphery Tug of War in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific
Abstract: Bringing together a team of cutting-edge researchers based in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific countries, this book focuses on the tug of war between China’s influence and forces of resistance in Hong Kong, Taiwan and selected countries in its surrounding jurisdictions.China’s influence has met growing defiance from citizens in Hong Kong and Taiwan who fear the extinction of their valued local identities. However, the book shows that resistance to China’s influence is a global phenomenon, varying in motivation and intensity from region to region and country to country depending on the forms of China’s influence and the balances of forces in each society. The book also advances a concentric center-periphery framework for comparing different forms of extra-jurisdictional Chinese influence mechanisms, ranging from economic, military and diplomatic influences to united front operations.
Abstract: This book presents an interdisciplinary examination of cross-Taiwan Strait relations and the complex dynamics at play in the region.
Since the election of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan’s president in 2008, the relationship across the Taiwan Strait—long viewed as one of Asia’s most volatile potential flashpoints—has experienced a remarkable détente. Whether the relationship has been truly transformed, however, remains an open question and the Taiwan Strait remains a central regional and global security issue. A return to turbulence in the Taiwan Strait could also add a new dimension of instability in the already tense maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas.
Find the full book on Routledge.
Abstract: Taiwan is one of the great paradoxes of the international order. A place with its own flag, currency, government and military, but which most of the world does not recognise as a sovereign country. An island that China regards as a ‘rebellious province’, but which has managed to survive defiantly for decades. Now with its neighbour China a major power on the world stage and ally United States looking increasingly inward, Taiwan’s position has never been more precarious.
Find the full book on Bloomsbury.
Abstract: Challenging the view of Taiwan as a product of transience and displacement, it highlights Taiwan’s subjectivity, viewing the island as a site of a global development that epitomizes both resistance and negotiation in the process of cultural flows.
The fourteen contributions by an international team of scholars investigate the multi-layered and multidirectional interplays between the island and the outside world, exploring the impact of complex cultural encounters on the construction, writing and rewriting of Taiwan in a global context. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the topics covered range from Taiwanese literature, cinema, food culture and tourism to cultural geography, colonial history, and folk religion, with comparisons made with Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the West.
Find the book on Routledge.
Abstract: This book provides a comprehensive analysis of other countries’ foreign policies towards Taiwan.
Description: The issue of Taiwan is the single most difficult factor in the relationship between China and the United States. Any cross-straits conflict between China and Taiwan is likely not only to pit the world’s two leading powers against each other, but also to suck in many other countries. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of other countries’ foreign policies towards Taiwan. It considers the position of the United States and key regional powers including Japan and South and North Korea, examines the attitude of Russia and other countries which support China on this issue, and discusses the surprising policies of some smaller countries, which have recognised Taiwan’s independence. The book also relates the overall picture to various international relations theories.
Find the full book on Routledge.
Publication Year: 2018
Offshore Archipelagos Enclosed by Straight Baselines: An Excessive Claim?
Abstract: This article examines the conclusion in the decision of the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea Case that straight baselines may not be used to enclose off-shore archipelagos unless they meet the criteria set out in Articles 46 and 47 of the Law of the Sea Convention.
[Article 7 of UNCLOS relates to the use of straight baselines in delineating maritime territory. Article 46 of UNCLOS defines “archipelago” and “archipelagic State.” Article 47 of UNCLOS relates to the use of archipelagic baselines in delineating maritime territory. – RPI]
Publication Year: 2018
The Expansion of and Changes to the National Coast Guards in East Asia
Abstract: East Asian countries have vigorously engaged in a buildup of the capabilities of their coast guards. This has been driven in part by the need to protect their maritime jurisdiction in the face of numerous maritime disputes. The coast guards in East Asia serve as the front-line defender of sovereignty and maritime claims.
Publication Year: 2019
Due Diligence and Overlooked Evidence in the South China Sea Arbitration: A Note
Abstract: In the South China Sea Arbitration, the Tribunal decided that China had not breached the due diligence obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment under Articles 192 and 194(5) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning Chinese fishers fishing with explosives, but that China had breached the same obligation regarding Chinese fishers harvesting endangered species. This article looks at how the Tribunal interpreted and applied the due diligence obligation and argues, from a Chinese perspective, that there were facts overlooked by the Tribunal that China could have presented to counter the evidence of the Philippines, which might have been enough to affect the decision on destructive fishing had China participated in the Arbitration.
[Article 192 of UNCLOS reads: “States have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment.” Article 194(5) of UNCLOS reads: “The measures taken in accordance with this Part shall include those necessary to protect and preserve rare or fragile ecosystems as well as the habitat of depleted, threatened or endangered species and other forms of marine life.” -RPI]
Publication Year: 2019
Jurisdiction Over Underwater Cultural Heritage in the EEZ and on the Continental Shelf: A Perspective From the Practice of States Bordering the South China Sea
Abstract: The Chinese initiative of constructing the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road could be identified as a new chance to promote the protection of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) in the South China Sea. However, uncertainties concerning the jurisdictional issue over the UCH in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or on the continental shelf constitute an obstacle. The Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage has, to some extent, enlarged the coastal state’s jurisdiction. State practice differs on this issue. This article focuses on the domestic legislations of states bordering the South China Sea related to the jurisdiction over UCH found in their EEZ or on their continental shelf.
