As a result of the Aigun (1858) and Beijing Treaties (1860) Russia had become a participant in international relations of Northeast Asia, but historiography has underestimated the presence of Russia and the USSR in this region. This collection elucidates how Russia's expansion affected early Meiji Japan's policy towards Korea and the late Qing Empire's Manchurian reform. Russia participated in the mega-imperial system of transportation and customs control in Northern China and created a transnational community around the Chinese Eastern Railway and Harbin City. The collection vividly describes daily life of the emigre Russians' community in Harbin after 1917. The collection investigates mutual images between the Russians and Japanese through the prism of the descriptions of the Japanese Imperial House in Russian newspapers and memoirs written by Russian POWs in and after the Russo-Japanese War and war journalism during this war. The first Soviet ambassador in Japan, V. Kopp, proposed to restore the division of spheres of interest between Russia and Japan during the tsarist era and thus conflicted People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, G. Chicherin, the Soviet ambassador in Beijing, L. Karakhan, and Stalin, since the latter group was more loyal to the cause of China's national liberation. As a whole, the collection argues that it is difficult to understand the modern history of Northeast Asia without taking the Russian factor seriously.

Russia has generally been neglected in the academic and policy discourse on regional integration in East Asia. This book fills this gap, with particular attention to the role of Pacific Russia in the deepening regional integration in East Asia. It examines the increasingly diverse foreign policy interests of Russia related to emerging economic and political realities of the world, and Russia’s potential role in the regional integration in East Asia. Topics discussed include Russian strategic interests and security policy in East Asia generally, Russia’s bilateral relations with China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, opportunities and challenges energy and immigration presents for Russia and its engagement with East Asia, and Russia’s present and future roles in regional integration in East Asia.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from leading scholars, this book investigates state preferences for regime creation and assesses state capacity for executing these preferences in Northeast Asia’s energy domain, defined as the geographical area comprising the following countries: Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea. It examines questions pertaining to how states perceive the need and necessity for establishing a regime when it comes to the issue of energy and how much commitment they make to the effort in Northeast Asia. The book analyses the factors that shape each country’s fundamental energy interests in the region, how these interests impact their attitudes toward engaging the region on energy security and the way they carry out their regional engagement. Based on countries’ interests in promoting institutionalized regional energy cooperation and their capacity for forging that cooperation, the collection assesses each state’s role in contributing to an energy regime in Northeast Asia. It then concludes with a critique on the decade-plus quest for energy security cooperation in Northeast Asia and suggests ways forward for facilitating regional energy security cooperation. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of environmental policy, energy policy, security studies, Asian studies and international relations.

Defining and conceptualizing Northeast Asia’s security complex poses unique quandaries. The security architecture in Northeast Asia to date has been predominately U.S.-dominated bilateral alliances, weak institutional structures and the current Six Party Talks dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue. There has been a distinct lack of desire among regional countries as well as the U.S. to follow in the footsteps of Europe with its robust set of multilateral institutions. However, since the late 1990s, there has been burgeoning interest among regional states towards forming new multilateral institutions as well as reforming and revitalizing existing mechanisms. Much of this effort has been in the economic and political arenas, with the creation of bodies such as the East Asian Summit, but there have also been important initiatives in the security sphere. This book offers detailed examinations about how this potentially tense region of the world is redefining certain longstanding national interests, and shows how this shift is the result of changing power relations, the desire to protect hard-won economic gains, as well as growing trust in new processes designed to foster regional cooperation over regional conflict. Presenting new and timely research on topics that are vital to the security future of one of the world’s most important geographical regions, this book will be of great value to students and scholars of Asian politics, regionalism, international politics and security studies.

Politics and Economics in the Russian Far East addresses the key issue of what the Russian Far East and its Northeast Asian neighbours can do to further closen economic and co-operative relationships. The question of to what extent the state should intervene to stimulate economic growth in the Russian Far East is covered, as are the options for a more laissez-faire approach. The possibilities for economic co-operation with the more successful market economies of the region are discussed as are the problems and opportunities presented by the exploitation of Russia's vast natural resources. This book will be essential reading for all those wishing to obtain a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues involved in the development of co-operative relationships between Russia and its Asia-Pacific neighbours.

This volume zones in on Russia’s relations with the Indo-Pacific region through the lens of theoretical pluralism, presenting alternatives to the mainstream Realist view of Russia as a major power using geopolitical strategies to establish itself. Russia in the Indo-Pacific is an understudied topic that needs a fresh perspective. Contributors to this volume are based across Russia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the USA, drawing on a range of multinational perspectives and theoretical approaches encompassing realism and liberalism, constructivism and the English school of international relations. Reflecting a trend of internationalization in the Russian study of IR, such theoretical pluralism could facilitate Russian contributions to emerging global IR theory. Russia in the Indo-Pacific contributes towards a more intelligible common discourse in the Indo-Pacific, of interest to students and scholars of Sino-Russian relations, Indo-Pacific international relations, and international relations theory. It will also be of interest to policymakers and general readers following foreign policy and economic trends in the Indo-Pacific who want to better understand Russia's role.

This study aims to strengthen trust between Korea and Russia through promoting mutual understanding and improving the quality of policy network. The study is the outcome of the joint research of KINU and IMEMO. As the editor of this volume, I hope this study may help experts, students and readers in Korea and in the countries surrounding the Korean Peninsula to have a clearer understanding of Russia’s national strategy, Northeast strategy, Far East and Siberia strategy, and the importance of the “strategic cooperation partnership” between Korea and Russia. Part 1. Russia Foreign and Security Strategy and the North Korean Nuclear Issue Ⅰ. Russia´s Foreign and Security Strategy in the 21st Century/ Sergei Chugrov Ⅱ. Changes in Russia-U.S. Relations and New START/ Vladimir U. Sizov Ⅲ. Russian Security Strategy in Northeast Asia and the North Korean Nuclear Issue/ Vasily Mikheev Ⅳ. The Russia-ROK Quest for a Strategic Partnership: Problems and Implications in Security Cooperation/ Georgy Toloraya Part 2. Russia Strategy for Economic Development and the Korean Peninsula Ⅴ. Main Trends and Prospects for the Russian Far East/East Siberia Region´s Cooperation with Northeast Asia/ Alexander N. Fedorovskiy Ⅵ. The Russia-to-Korea Railroad Connetion Project: Present State and Prospects/ Alexander Vorotsov Ⅶ. The Russian Position and Policies on the Tuman River Area Development Programme(TRADP)/ Svetlana Suslina Ⅷ. Russia´s Strategy Toward the Arctic/ Seok Hwan Kim Conclusion: Suggestions for Strengthening the ROK-Russia Strategic Cooperation Partnership/ In-Kon Yeo

This book attempts to reveal historical dynamism of transforming contemporary Maritime Asia and to identify key driving forces or agencies for the evolution and transformation of Maritime Asia in the context of global history studies. It seeks to accomplish these goals by connecting different experiences in Maritime Asia both historically from the late early-modern to the present and spatially covering both East and Southeast Asia. Focusing on interactions on and through oceans, seas, and islands, Maritime Asia can deal with any aspects of human society and the nature, including diplomacy, maritime trade, cultural exchange, identity and others. Its interest in supra-regional interactions and networks, migration and diaspora, combined with its microscopic concern with local and trans-border affairs, will surely contribute to the common task of contemporary social sciences and humanities, to relativize the conventional framework based on the nation-state. In this regard, research in Maritime Asia claims to be an integral part of global studies. Part I deals with long-distance trade and diplomatic relations during the late early modern era and its transition to the modern era, mainly in the nineteenth century. Part II focuses on the emergence of transregional and trans-oceanic Asian networks and the original institution-building efforts in the Asia-Pacific region in the twentieth century.

After two centuries of nation-building, the world has entered an era of region-building in search of political stability, cultural cohesion, and socio-economic development. Nations involved in the regional structures and integration schemes that are emerging in most regions of the world are deepening their ambitions, with Europe’s integration experience often used as an experimental template or theoretical model. Volume I provides a political-analytical framework for recognizing the central role of the European Union not only as a conceptual model but also a normative engine in the global proliferation of regional integration. It also gives a comprehensive treatment of the focus, motives, and objectives of non-European integration efforts. Volume II offers a unique collection of documents that give the best available overview of the legal and political evolution of region-building based on official documents and stated objectives of the relevant regional groupings across all continents. Together, these volumes are important contributions for understanding the evolution of global affairs in an age when power shifts provide new challenges and opportunities for transatlantic partners and the world community.

This essay is about the management of natural and environmental resources in cross-border areas. It explores a group of geographical, political, legal, economic and cultural factors that arise when political units (such as sovereign countries, dependent states and other administrative units) seek to utilize natural and environmental resources efficiently and equitably while minimizing the resultant damages (for example, prevention of resource degradation and preservation of the physical environment). * Examines various types of cross-border areas at both international and sub-national levels throughout the world as well as their geographical, political, economic and cultural influences on the cross-border resource management * Uses the latest international and area data, resulting in new findings for cross-border environmental activities * Contains a large number of case studies throughout the world including four in-depth case studies of cross-border resource management