Japanese leaders and often the media too have substituted symbols for strategy in dealing with Asia. This comprehensive review of four periods over twenty years exposes the strategic gap in viewing individually and collectively China, Taiwan, the Korean peninsula, Russia, Central Asia, and regionalism.

This book traces the development of Chinese thinking over four periods from the 1980s on and covers strategies toward: Russia and Central Asia, Japan, the Korean peninsula, Southeast and South Asia, and regionalism. It compares strategic thinking, arguing that the level was lowest under Jiang Zemin and highest under Hu Jintao.

At the crossroads of Northeast Asia, South Korea provides a critical vantage point for viewing changes in the region. This comprehensive review of the past quarter century covers its strategic thinking in regard to China, Japan, Russia, regionalism, and reunification.

The book explains the Putin era's ambivalent approach to Asia and finds lessons from earlier approaches worthy of further attention. The overview compares how strategic thinking evolved, while reflecting on factors that shaped it.

This collection of essays by leading scholars from Japan, China, South Korea, and the United States examines how and why bitter historical memories have resurfaced in recent years as freshly virulent and contentious issues between Japan and its neighbors—especially China and South Korea. Moreover, it seeks to identify what set of conditions and what sequence of measures will enable these modern nations to manage, palliate, and exorcise the wrongs of the past in a spirit of reconciliation, so that the dangerous growth of nationalist resentments and revanchism can be checked. Comfort women ... the Yasukuni Shrine ... the history textbook controversies ... The single sorest issue confronting East Asia today is the growing animosity and conflict between Japan and its neighbors—especially China and South Korea—over their respective and collective memories of Japan's pre-1945 militaristic aggression, oppression, and atrocities. Even as East Asia has established itself as one of the most vibrant economic regions of the world, the strident nationalisms that have emerged here in the post-Cold War period have exacerbated historical grievances and heightened the international tensions that separate Japan from China and South Korea, blocking the development of an international system based on comity and cooperation.

In this volume, experts on East Asia focus on each of the past five decades to explain the weak predictive power of traditional IR theory as applied to the region and uncover the true forces driving change.

This book presents a study of Japanese involvement in post-Soviet Central Asia since the independence of these countries in 1991, examining the reasons for progress and stagnation in this multi-lateral relationship. Featuring interviews with decision-makers and experts from Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and the Philippines, this book argues that Japan’s impact on Central Asia and its connectivity has been underappreciated. It demonstrates that Japan’s infrastructural footprint in the New Silk Road significantly pre-dated China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and that the financial and policy contribution driven by Japanese officials was of a similar order of magnitude. It also goes on to show that Japan was the first major power outside of post-Soviet Central Asia to articulate a dedicated Silk Road diplomacy vis-à-vis the region before the United States and China, and the first to sponsor pivotal assistance. Being the first detailed analytical account of the diplomatic impact made on the New Silk Road by various Japanese actors beyond formal diplomacy, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese politics, as well as Asian politics and international politics more generally.

To convey the image of a responsible power willing to contribute to regional stability and cooperation, China has shifted from a single-minded preference for bilateralism to an active participation in East Asian regionalism in the recent decades. This development has inspired discussions over whether a rising China could play a leadership role in building an institutionalized architecture for regional cooperation in East Asia. Nevertheless, this has not happened as East Asian regional cooperation and relevant activities remain mostly ad hoc and informal, especially when compared to regions such as Europe. To what extent has China contributed or constrained the development of regionalism in East Asia? What are China’s desired roles and objectives in East Asian regional cooperation? What is the level of trust that other regional players have for China in regional cooperation? This book seeks answers to these questions by exploring China’s motivations and strategic calculations as well as its policy practices in East Asian economic and security cooperation. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary China.

From a nuclear North Korea and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, to global climate change and Asia-Pacific free trade agreements, Japan is at the center of some of the most challenging issues that the world faces today. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, comprising contributions from the fields of politics, sociology, history, and gender studies, this handbook creates a comprehensive and innovative overview of the field, investigating the widening variety of interests, sometimes competing, that constitute Japanese foreign policy. Organized topically, it is divided into sections, including: • Japan’s evolving foreign policy landscape • Global environmental and sustainable development • International and national security • International political economy • International norms and civil society. Providing an evaluation of the key actors, institutions, and networks influencing Japanese foreign policy, the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Foreign Policy is an essential resource for students and scholars of Japanese and Asian Politics, International Relations, and Foreign Policy.

The eighth volume in NBR’s Strategic Asia series assesses the major strategic choices on Asia facing the new U.S. president and administration as well as the broader policy community. Through a combination of country, regional, and topical studies, the book analyzes the impact of U.S. policy and geopolitical developments on Asia’s transformation over the past eight years.