Abstract
Dependence on foreign oil has long been considered a national security issue in the United States. Yet imports from some countries, such as Canada, are seen as a benign form of economic interdependence that yields gains from trade for both parties. Literature on energy interdependence usually conceives of dependency as an objective material condition whose political implications can be accessed through sober cost/benefit analysis. By contrast, this article argues that dependency is best seen as a discourse and that assessments of the costs and benefits of dependency are shaped by cultural constructions of geography. A critical constructivist approach to interdependence is developed to make this case. US dependence on Middle Eastern oil serves as an example to illustrate the argument. It is argued that American representations of the Arab world as America’s principal cultural Other have precluded a liberal reading of US–Middle Eastern energy interdependence.
PDF
Country or Region: United States
He, Kai
Abstract
China’s rise is a bargaining process between China and the outside world—especially with the United States. This article suggests two strategies, “socialization” and “legitimation,” which a rising power can use to seek “accommodation for identity” with the hegemon. Using China’s peaceful rise after the Cold War as a case study, the essay then examines how China employed these two strategies to reach bargaining deals on the arms control regimes and anti-separatist movements in Xinjiang with the outside world. It concludes that the United States needs to take China’s bargaining efforts seriously and consider possible peaceful accommodation with China.
PDF
Gupta, Amit
Abstract
The demographic shift in America may well strengthen U.S. foreign policy, as well as military capability and economic competitiveness. In a globalized world, America’s ethnic diversity, the innovation that comes from bringing the best and the brightest from around the world to this country, and the fact that a diverse population becomes a stakeholder class could all work to ensure that the United States remains the most influential nation in the world.
PDF
Gompert, David C. and Bruce H. Stover
Abstract
America’s emergence as a producer of liquid hydrocarbons suggests an opportunity to sell energy to China, help reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and lend stability to this most critical relationship. Also, America’s emergence as a leading producer and prospective major exporter of liquid hydrocarbons – petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG) – presents it with historic opportunities: negating OPEC’s ability to control world prices; thwarting Russian manipulation of natural-gas supplies for political ends; reducing global dependence on the volatile Middle East and vulnerable Persian Gulf; and giving US allies in Europe and East Asia an alternative to insecure supplies. A further opportunity looms for the United States to supply energy to China, and in doing so to realise economic gains, help China reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and lend stability to the world’s most critical relationship. China, too, has much to gain.
PDF
Carafa, Luigi
Abstract
The United States and China recently announced a joint climate agreement that creates unprecedented political momentum for the Paris COP21 to be held in December 2015. Yet, it is unclear whether such a deal is an historic breakthrough or business as usual policy. A closer look at the US-China climate agreement shows that the chances that the agreed measures have of limiting global warming to 2°C are very few. If seen in terms of concrete policy action, the US pledge comes closer to a pathway compatible with a 2°C target. By contrast, however, China’s pledges are far from consistent with a 2°C pathway. As the COP21 approaches, it is becoming clear that China matters more than ever for an effective climate deal. But it is also becoming increasingly clear that, in the best case scenario, Beijing will support a start now/sprint later agreement in Paris.
Amari, Akira
Abstract
On October 5, 2015, the 12 countries reached an agreement in principle on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that will build 21st-century trade and investment rules concerning tariffs, services, investment, intellectual property, state-owned enterprises, and other areas. Going beyond the myriad bilateral FTAs and EPAs, the TPP is intended to give shape to policy relating to trade in the Asia-Pacific. Since Japan officially participated in TPP negotiations in 2013, one focus has been on an economic growth strategy that provides opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises to consider overseas expansion and that allows Japan to re-emerge as a major exporting country. Regionally, the TPP is expected to contribute to economic development in the Asia-Pacific as a whole at the dawn of an “Asia-Pacific Century.” As the minister in charge of negotiating for Japan’s national interest in the TPP, the author shares his perspective about the agreement.
Yu, Yu, Derek D. Wang, Shanling Li, and Qinfen Shi
Abstract
Climate change is becoming an increasingly critical concern for human society. While there has been a great deal of research on climate change performance at the country/region level, our research focuses on the study of firm-level environmental efficiency as a proxy for firms’ climate change management. Using a unique data set on U.S. S&P 500 firms for the period 2012–2013 and DEA slack-based models, we obtain firms’ environmental efficiencies in six sectors. The results show significant performance dispersions both across and within the sectors. We highlight each sector’s pros and cons in the environmental performance and propose guidelines for policy makers to further improve climate change performance. We also evaluate firms’ operational performance and propose a unified performance measure by integrating operational and environmental efficiencies. Overall, we find there is no significant relationship between operational and environmental efficiencies in any of the six industrial sectors under study. The unified performance measures are more driven by the environmental efficiency than the operational efficiency.
PDF available here
Yoshikawa, Hideki
Abstract
The “Okinawa problem” to which the APJ has paid so much attention over recent years continues to evolve, and the contradiction between the national governments of Japan and the United States on the one hand and the prefectural government and people of Okinawa on the other to intensify. The following paper was drafted by Hideki Yoshikawa and issued on May 19 in the name of the US Working Group section of the “All Okinawa Council.” The “All-Okinawa Council” is an Okinawan mass organization set up in July 2014 representing local communities, civil society groups, local assemblies, and business establishments, to press for reduction of the burden of the US military presence. It has constituted a major plank in support of Governor Onaga’s insistence that no new base be built in Okinawa for the Marine Corps.
The attached document is intended as an “Update” in the sense of being a supplement to the “Position Statement” issued in the name of the Council on the occasion of its November 2015 delegation to the US. That delegation visited US Congress and other institutions and called on the US government to cancel the Henoko base construction plan (in the north of Okinawa) and to close the US Marine Air Station Futenma in the middle of Ginowan City.
That “Position Statement” presented the case of the overwhelming majority of the Okinawan people who have shown in every conceivable way that they oppose the Henoko plan and demand the return of Futenma. It argued that the Henoko plan constituted not merely an Okinawan problem but that it involved the United States, and that US laws had been and were being infringed.
PDF available here
Yang, Jiemian
Abstract
China attaches great importance to maintaining constructive relations with major powers. This article deals with the background and characteristics of the relationship between China, the United States, Russia and Japan. These countries are the four major powers in the Asia‐Pacific region and indeed in the world. Their relationship contributes to the reshaping of the global configuration of power, especially international political and economic orders. Since the end of the Cold War, this quadrilateral relationship has been undergoing changes and readjustment. Although they compete and differ with each other on a number of issues, these four nations are trying to create co-operative economic and security mechanisms. To achieve this objective they need to adjust to the new era of political polarisation, economic globalisation and cultural integration. As we look into the new century, this relationship would follow the same patterns of friction, contradiction and conflict.
PDF
Reilly, Benjamin
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of increasing intra-state conflict in the Asia Pacific on domestic, regional and international security. It focuses on secessionist conflicts and self-determination disputes in South-East Asia and the South Pacific. It looks at the reasons behind the increase in such internal conflicts, including the proliferation of weak, ethnically diverse states; the impacts of modernization and democratization; and changing international norms in relation to the creation of new states. Finally, it examines the way that intra-state conflict impacts upon the international security agenda via the involvement of distant actors; the internationalization of domestic disputes; cross-border movements of arms and people; increasing threats to maritime transport; and the potential for increased superpower competition in the region.
PDF
Liu, Na, and JianCheng Guan
Abstract
The USA is a leading country while China is an up-and-coming one in nanotechnology. We carried out a cross-country comparative study on policy and innovation of the two countries in subset nanoenergy field. They both created favorable policy environments for nanotechnology involving applications of nanotechnology in the energy sector. However, Chinese policy deployments for nanotechnology lack coordinated arrangements and effective assessment mechanisms. China performs better than the USA in technological quantity, but weaker in technological influence. The USA expresses an industry-oriented model in nanoenergy technological research and development, but China exhibits a university-and-institute-oriented model. Interorganizational collaboration relationships in the two countries are both still very rare and have huge development space. They both have a long way to go in converting their technological achievements into commercial products, especially China. Finally, we provide the policy implications of this study. In particular, the Chinese government should strengthen its efforts in policies by changing the national S&T evaluation system to set up the basic idea that quality is better than quantity in order to raise the original innovation motivations of innovators.
PDF available here
Klintworth, Gary
Abstract
Sino‐US relations are the most problematic of all the great power relationships in the Asia‐Pacific region, and in that relationship it is the question of Taiwan and its future that is the most difficult. However, through trial and error over the last 50 years, China and the United States have established a workable framework in which to manage their relationship and any crisis that might arise over the Taiwan issue. Essentially, China and the United States are sticking to certain rules that make conflict over Taiwan avoidable and unlikely, despite outbursts of posturing and rhetoric. The rules are that the United States will intervene only if China uses force against Taiwan, but China will use force only if Taiwan declares independence or continually refuses to negotiate. The new and eminently pragmatic Taiwanese President, Chen Shui-bian, however, has said he will not declare independence if China does not attack. He has also indicated a willingness to open up negotiations with Beijing. The sticking point is the definition of ‘one China’ but there have been subtle signs of some flexibility on this issue. There are any number of variables that might upset the chance of China and Taiwan settling their dispute over the meaning of ‘one China’, with disastrous consequences for both parties, for China‐US relations and for the Asia‐Pacific region in general. Most recently published articles are uniformly pessimistic. In the author’s view, however, the prospects of a redefinition of the meaning of ‘one China’, to the satisfaction of both sides, are improving and the likelihood of a confrontation over the issue, at least in the foreseeable future, is receding. If so, this will remove one of the irritants in Sino‐US relations.
PDF
Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Sylvia I
Abstract
The link between energy, economic development and national security has often made governments reluctant to address energy in global governance. In the United Nations (UN) system and beyond, the result has been almost a normative and institutional vacuum on energy. In the last decade some efforts have been made to fill this vacuum within the UN but they have faced considerable resistance, and instead initiatives have multiplied outside it. This article outlines the dynamics of the low profile of the energy issue on the agenda of the UN since the organisation’s birth, analyses in more detail the efforts to strengthen this agenda in the 2000s, and also why they failed. Finally, it discusses possible future options for the UN and the international community at large to address this urgent issue, situates this discussion in the rationalist and constructivist theories of effective and legitimate global governance and outlines further research avenues.
PDF
Jenkinson, Simon
Abstract
Vietnam has come to represent any situation of unexpected military failure or frustration, having an unexpectedly negative or counterproductive effect on the failing or frustrated actor: shades of nemesis and schadenfreude are frequently associated with its invocation by opponents of said actor; it is also invoked by partisans of the actor as a reason not to act. Vietnam—representing the dangers of ill-considered action—has become the reverse of Munich—so frequently invoked to illustrate the dangers of tardy action: together the two are opposite sides of a coin tossed in the air, dropped and snatched at every time a war is in prospect.
The true political lesson of the Vietnam War is far subtler, to do with the dangers of unilateral action, of the signing of blank cheques, of a domestic political debate overrunning the boundaries of electioneering and robbing politicians of their discretion. The military lesson was more straightforward, but, as far as the United States is concerned, the problems have been avoided rather than addressed.
This article will look at the three phases of the war—background, conflict and occupation—in turn, focusing on the political and military similarities to, and differences from, Vietnam where appropriate.
PDF
Huisken, Ron
Abstract
Following the revival of interest in a deliberate process of reduction in the nuclear arsenals, eventually to zero, this article looks at a dimension of this challenge that has been overshadowed by the Cold War US–Soviet/Russia nuclear relationship and its legacy, namely, how nuclear weapons have figured in the relationship between the US and China. The topic highlights itself both because East Asia exemplifies the full range of challenges that confront the quest for nuclear disarmament and because the US–China relationship has been singled out as likely to be the defining relationship of this century.
PDF
