Northeast Asia and the World-System
Abstract There is a significant difference between politics and geo-politics. Politics is about the existential present. Geopolitics is about the structural constraints that govern, over a medium run, the interplay of the longer-term political and economic interests of the major players in the world system. Geopolitical trends are not found in the headlines. Indeed they are largely hidden from the view of the political actors. The geopolitics of the world system nonetheless shapes the short-term actions of political agents, quite often without them even being aware of it. The single most important geopolitical change at the moment is the precipitate decline of the world-systemic power of the United States. The world-system has moved from a situation of creeping multipolarity to one of undisguised multipolarity. If we are to imagine them as a singular locus of geopolitical power in the coming decades the first question that is posed is whether or not there will be some sort of reunification of the two Chin...
Constructing Regional Interests in Japan and China
An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Studies Association’s annual meeting in Portland, OR, on March 1, 2003, and at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia on August 28, 2003. Saori N. Katada is an associate professor in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. The Japanese Economy, vol. 31, nos. 3–4, Fall 2003/Winter 2003–4, pp. 126–150. © 2004 M. E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1097–203X / 2004 $9.50 + 0.00.
Chinese Relations with Japan: Implications for Asia-Pacific Regionalism
THROUGHOUT much of modern history, the way China andJapan relate to one another has fundamentally shaped their respective regional roles and the contours of the East Asian international system. The phenomenal "Asian economic miracle" over the past three decades or so has started to shift the center of gravity of the global political economy from the Atlantic to the Pacific, prompting many to predict the dawning of a "Pacific century." But for some, the denouement of power rivalry between the Atlantic and Pacific will be largely determined by how China and Japan work out their relationship.' Sino-Japanese relations take on an importance in Asian affairs at least comparable to that of Franco-German relations in determining European affairs. Yet curiously, the blossoming literature on Asia-Pacific regionalism has tended to overlook the impact of the relations between the two most important indigenous Asian powers, China andJapan.2 This article examines Chinese relations with Japan in the context of efforts of regional economic cooperation. Two premises underlie the analysis. First, the bilateral relationship has a great bearing on their respective postures toward attempts at regional cooperation. Second, the pattern of their dyadic interaction greatly shapes the pace and structure of Asia-Pacific multilateral arrangement.