International Studies - Books by Region

This edited volume assesses the quality of democracy in the Republic of Korea three decades after its formal democratization in 1987. It has been argued that Korea's two subsequent power turnovers prove that its democracy has been successfully consolidated, despite its tremendous progress; however, recent developments show signs of deterioration and retreat. Therefore, drawing on the recent quality of democracy literature this volume sets out to answer the question: Where does Korea's democratic quality stand today? The three chapters in first section of the book focus on aspects related to the presidency, political parties, and organized labor, also including the perspective of governance and human security as well as on the rule of law regarding the role and function of the prosecution. This is followed by a set of four chapters in section two that address the dimensions of democratic quality such as participation, freedom, equality, and responsiveness. The final, third section includes contributions on related inter-Korean policy issues. This book is an invaluable resource for political and social scientist working on democratic quality, and at the same for scholars in Asian or Korean Studies at faculty level as well as on graduate student level.

South Korea's postcolonial history has been replete with dramatic societal transformations through which it has emerged with a fully blown modernity, or compressed modernity. There have arisen the transformation-oriented state, society, and citizenry for which each transformation becomes an ultimate purpose in itself, its processes and means constitute the main sociopolitical order, and the transformation-embedded interests form the core social identity. A distinct mode of citizenship has thereby arisen as transformative contributory rights, namely, effective or legitimate claims to national and social resources, opportunities, and respects that accrue to each citizen's contributions to the nation's or society's collective transformative goals. South Koreans have been exhorted or have exhorted themselves to intensely engage in such collective transformations, so that their citizenship is framed and substantiated by the conditions, processes, and outcomes of such transformative engagements. This book concretely and systematically analyzes how this transformative dynamic has shaped South Koreans' developmental, social, educational, reproductive, and cultural citizenship.

This book examines how North Korea has managed to weather an uncertain political future and catastrophic economic system since the end of the Cold War. Emerging as a state that has successfully developed and tested missiles and nuclear weapons, North Korea has consolidated the Kim family dynasty through the appointment of Kim Jong Un as Pyongyang's latest strongman. The author provides an empirically rich account of new diplomatic recognitions, military partnerships, knowledge trade, coping mechanisms to offset international sanctions, import and export partners, foreign investment practices and engagement within the Global South. The resulting picture is that of a state that is, against all odds, mainstreaming, and becoming a more complex and relevant actor in the 21st century diplomatic world.

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a rise of populism and decline of public confidence in many of the formal institutions of democracy. This crisis of democracy has stimulated searches for alternative ways of understanding and enacting politics. Against this background, Tessa Morris-Suzuki explores the long history of informal everyday political action in the Japanese context. Despite its seemingly inflexible and monolithic formal political system, Japan has been the site of many fascinating small-scale experiments in 'informal life politics': grassroots do-it-yourself actions which seek not to lobby governments for change, but to change reality directly, from the bottom up. She explores this neglected history by examining an interlinked series of informal life politics experiments extending from the 1910s to the present day.

The authors argue that with the election of the Abe Government in December 2012, Japanese politics has entered a radically new phase they describe as the "2012 Political System." The system began with the return to power of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), after three years in opposition, but in a much stronger electoral position than previous LDP-based administrations in earlier decades. Moreover, with the decline of previously endemic intra-party factionalism, the LDP has united around an essentially nationalist agenda never absent from the party's ranks, but in the past was generally blocked, or modified, by factions of more liberal persuasion. Opposition weakness following the severe defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration in 2012 has also enabled the Abe Government to establish a political stability largely lacking since the 1990s. The first four chapters deal with Japanese political development since 1945 and factors leading to the emergence of Abe Shinzō as Prime Minister in 2012. Chapter 5 examines the Abe Government's flagship economic policy, dubbed "Abenomics." The authors then analyse four highly controversial objectives promoted by the Abe Government: revision of the 1947 'Peace Constitution'; the introduction of a Secrecy Law; historical revision, national identity and issues of war apology; and revised constitutional interpretation permitting collective defence. In the final three chapters they turn to foreign policy, first examining relations with China, Russia and the two Koreas, second Japan and the wider world, including public diplomacy, economic relations and overseas development aid, and finally, the vexed question of how far Japanese policies are as reactive to foreign pressure. In the Conclusion, the authors ask how far right wing trends in Japan exhibit common causality with shifts to the right in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. They argue that although in Japan immigration has been a relatively minor factor, economic stagnation, demographic decline, a sense of regional insecurity in the face of challenges from China and North Korea, and widening gaps in life chances, bear comparison with trends elsewhere. Nevertheless, they maintain that "[a] more sane regional future may be possible in East Asia."

This book draws on the extensive literature on populism, democracy, and emerging markets as well as interviews with senior government officials, experts, and journalists in the Philippines and beyond, This book is the first to analyze the significance and implications of the rise of Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte within a rapidly-changing Asia Pacific region. As China's power in the Pacific grows rapidly, nations that have traditionally been US allies, such as the Phillipines, are experiencing political convulsions; Duterte's open willingness to realign towards China (at the expense of America) in exchange for infrastructure investment is one of the clearest indicators of what China's rise might look like for nations around the world. Timely, precise, accessible and fast-paced, this book will be of value to scholars, journalists, policy-makers, and China watchers.

This book presents a cogent but comprehensive review of Taiwan's socio-economic transformation from a Japanese colony to a thriving East Asian mini-state. Since the 1980's, Taiwan has primarily been viewed as a thriving economic model. Though certainly true, this assessment belies the amazing social and political success story for 23 million people on a small New Hampshire-sized island just off the China coast. Metzler highlights the engaging political narrative of democratization as well as Taiwan's noteworthy accomplishments despite the proximity and opposition of communist China. Further, the result of the 2016 elections and its implication are analyzed.  Scholars studying East Asia and policy makers will gain a greater appreciation for the island's dynamic, prosperous resilience, despite pressure from China.

This book explores the connection between politics and mega-events in post-handover Hong Kong and Macao. It also offers an in-depth account of the two cities' keenness to integrate with China and engage in the international society and China's eagerness to build image, boost influence and gain respect on the global arena. This work will facilitate academics, think tanks, diplomats and government officials to further understand the politics and international relations of China, Hong Kong and Macao.

In 1997, Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China under the "one country, two systems" framework. In this new edition, Tim Summers brings his analysis of the politics of Hong Kong fully up to date and discusses the ramifications for the city of the mass demonstrations of 2019-20 and the city's intensifying confrontational politics that have culminated in China's new national security law for Hong Kong. In the process, Hong Kong has lost the sweet spot it occupied for four decades in a world of intensifying economic globalization and decent US-China relations, all the more so after Covid-19. Instead it finds itself at the frontline of US-China strategic rivalry. Summers explores how the city's future will be shaped by the interaction of these global tensions with Hong Kong's polarized local politics and its relationship with Beijing.

This book provides a governance perspective on China's digital authoritarianism by examining the political and institutional dynamics of the country's internet sector in a historical context. Using leading theories of authoritarian institutions, it discusses China's approach to the internet and methods of implementation in terms of party-state institutions and policy processes. This provides a much-needed 'inside out' perspective on digital authoritarianism that avoids the perception of China as some coherent and static monolith. The study also offers a powerful rationale for China's cyber sovereignty as an externalisation of its domestic internet governance framework and broader political-economic context. As China shifts from rule-taker to rule-maker in world politics, the Chinese Dream (zhongguo meng) is now going global. Beijing's digital authoritarian toolkit is being promoted and exported to other authoritarian regimes, making China a major driver of digital repression at the global level.