Human Security and Cross-Border Cooperation in East Asia


Book Description

This book takes up a wide variety of human security challenges beyond the dimension of human conflict, and looks at both natural and human disasters that the East Asian region faces or is attempting to resolve. While discussing various human security issues, the case studies offer practical lessons to address serious human security challenges in the framework of the ASEAN Plus Three and beyond. Against the backdrop of multifaceted globalization and parochial reactions thereto, this book is a powerful contribution to universal human security.




Cross-border Governance in Asia


Book Description

Rapid globalization has led to increased flows of capital, services, ideas, information, and people between countries. As such, problems and challenges that face one nation often have a rippling impact throughout the region and globally. The growing list of cross-border issues cannot be resolved by isolated policy action at the national or subnational levels. It is essential to forge strategic alliances at the regional level that support the development of consolidated approaches for dialogue and action. This book discusses regional governance mechanisms and institutional arrangements to respond to emerging cross-border issues and trends in Asia and the Pacific, such as the movement of people including refugees and illegal migrants, regional trade integration for human development, effective and efficient water management, human trafficking, and health issues focusing on infectious disease surveillance and response. While examining the impact of governance on these issues, the book considers these questions: What are the key cross-border governance issues in Asia? What are the regional governance mechanisms to cope with these issues? How effective are the regional mechanisms and national institutional capacities in responding to these issues? What factors contribute to the success or failure of the mechanisms for regional cooperation? Contributors include Graeme Hugo (University of Adelaide), William J. Long (Sam Nunn School of International Affairs), Mike Douglass (University of Hawaii--Manoa), Taeho Bark (Seoul National University), and Mely Caballero-Anthony (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies).




Crossing National Borders


Book Description

International migration and other types of cross-border movement of people are becoming an important part of international relations in Northeast Asia. In this particular study, experts on China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Russia examine the political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of the interaction between border-crossing individuals and host communities, highlighting the challenges that face national and local leaders in each country and suggesting needed changes in national and international policies. The authors analyze population trends and migration patterns in each country: Chinese migration to the Russian Far East, Chinese, Koreans, and Russians in Japan, North Koreans in China, and migration issues in South Korea and Mongolia. The book introduces a wealth of empirical material and insight to both international migration studies and Northeast Asian area studies.




Globalization, Regionalization and Cross-Border Regions


Book Description

Cross-border regions are newly emerging social spaces stretching across national borders. Globalization makes national borders more permeable and leads to a rearrangement of economic and political interactions. This is particularly pronounced within supra-regional blocs featuring specific internal border regimes. The ensuing opportunities are increasingly seized to create border-spanning discourses and institutions. This is illustrated in the book by a range of experts analyzing cross-border regions in Europe, America, East Asia and Africa.




“The Belt and Road” International Migration of Asia


Book Description

The book studies multilateral population security issues and relevant governance strategies caused by international migration in the countries impacted by China’s Belt and Road initiative and their border areas. Buttressed by solid data mining and policy analysis, the title looks into the demographic trends of international migration in China and some Asian Belt and Road countries and stresses the urgency for more effective governance practices. Seeking to address the population security crisis triggered by the Initiative, the authors propose the idea of “multilateral population security governance”, grounded in the real-world challenges facing Belt and Road countries while also drawing on experiences of migration governance in western countries. As a new governance model, it calls for cross-border joint action and takes into consideration pertinent factors including economy, politics, culture, religion and commerce. Several case studies and comparative studies are offered in the chapters to illuminate the significance and effect of this cooperative mechanism. The book will be of interest to researchers and government officials interested in non-traditional security, international migration and formal demography as well as topics on population, resources and environment.




Cross-border Exchanges


Book Description

This book examines how logistics feeds into region-building. The angle of approach is to reach resolutely beyond logistical and material aspects of border-crossing in order to tackle cultural, symbolic, identity-based as well as institutional, legal and political dimensions of the contemporary 'pooling' of sovereignties in today's Eurasia.




Global Migration Governance


Book Description

Unlike many other trans-boundary policy areas, international migration lacks coherent global governance. There is no UN migration organization and states have signed relatively few multilateral treaties on migration. Instead sovereign states generally decide their own immigration policies. However, given the growing politicisation of migration and the recognition that states cannot always address migration in isolation from one another, a debate has emerged about what type of international institutions and cooperation are required to meet the challenges of international migration. Until now, though, that emerging debate on global migration governance has lacked a clear analytical understanding of what global migration governance actually is, the politics underlying it, and the basis on which we can make claims about what 'better' migration governance might look like. In order to address this gap, the book brings together a group of the world's leading experts on migration to consider the global governance of different aspects of migration. The chapters offer an accessible introduction to the global governance of low-skilled labour migration, high-skilled labour migration, irregular migration, lifestyle migration, international travel, refugees, internally displaced persons, human trafficking and smuggling, diaspora, remittances, and root causes. Each of the chapters explores the three same broad questions: What, institutionally, is the global governance of migration in that area? Why, politically, does that type of governance exist? How, normatively, can we ground claims about the type of global governance that should exist in that area? Collectively, the chapters enhance our understanding of the international politics of migration and set out a vision for international cooperation on migration.




An Emerging Asian Model of Governance and Transnational Knowledge Transfer


Book Description

Although Asia has a long history of governance practices, its modern governance systems have been profoundly influenced by the Western models. This book explores how the declining economic and political influences on the global stage of the USA and Europe has significantly reduced developing countries’ confidence in the public governance models promoted by the Western world. As academics have begun to challenge the assuredness of the conventional logic of ‘Western = Global = Best’, scholarship has also grown on the contextualized governance experiences in Asia. This timely volume explores the emergence of Asian models of governance, taking into account the shifting global political economic landscape and the region’s rapid growth in recent decades. Could there be Asian models of governance that are distinct from the Western ones? If so, what are the key characteristics? The authors examine the potentials and challenges of Asian models of governance based on empirical studies from various Asian societies, ranging from Singapore and South Korea to Myanmar and Vietnam. As well as theoretical explorations, the book also provides rich empirical evidence on the contextualized lessons accumulated in Asia, offering a more nuanced understanding of Asian governance experience through comparative case studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Asian Public Policy which was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education AcRF Tier 2 Grant entitled “Transnational Knowledge Transfer and Dynamic Governance in Comparative Perspective”.




Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia


Book Description

Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia offers the latest understanding of complex global problems in the region, including nuclear weapons, urban insecurity, energy, and climate change. Detailed case studies of China, North and South Korea, and Japan demonstrate the importance of civil society and ‘civic diplomacy’ in reaching shared solutions to these problems in East Asia and beyond. Each chapter describes regional civil society initiatives that tackle complex challenges to East Asia’s security. In doing so, the book identifies key pressure points at which civil society can push for constructive changes¯especially ones that reduce the North Korean threat to its neighbors. Unusually, this book is both theoretical and practical. Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia presents strategies that can be led by civil society and negotiated by its diplomats to realize peace, security, and sustainability worldwide. It shows that networked civic diplomacy offers solutions to these urgent issues that official ‘complex diplomacy’ cannot. By providing a new theoretical framework based on empirical observation, this volume is a must read for diplomats, scholars, students, journalists, activists, and individual readers seeking insight into how to solve the crucial issues of our time.




World-Regional Social Policy and Global Governance


Book Description

This volume explores the case for and the prospects of the development of world-regional social policies as integral elements of a pluralistic, equitable and effective system of global governance. Focusing on transnational regionalism, this book examines the trajectory and crossing over of the three strands of scholarly analysis within the past decade which have given rise to this volume: the perceived negative impact of neo-liberal globalisation upon national social policy; the need for but the difficulty of securing reforms in the institutions of global social governance; and the increasing salience of the world-regional level of governance in handling cross-border issues. The authors develop an intellectual and research agenda that will also inform the political development of an international programme concerned with the social policy dimensions of regional governance. Combining the perspectives and collective expertise of a team of international scholars and activists, the book features: Theoretical and policy cases for a focus on regionalism and social policy A mapping and analysis of social policy dimensions of regional integration processes and formations in four continents An assessment of the regional dimensions of global agencies, in particular of the UN (ILO, WHO, UNESCO, UNDP) including the approach to regional social policy of the UN Regional Economic Commissions and Development Banks An articulation of a multi-levelled conceptualisation of global social governance within which regional associations of countries plays a significant part. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of social policy, development studies, international relations and political science, especially those focused on the public policy dimensions of globalisation, regionalisation and international development.