12: The Asian Century? Flashcards
what were the main dynamics/trajectories in post-WWII Asia?
post-colonial reality
- most of Asia going through the last phase in the process of decolonisation
Cold War frontline
- interplayed with decolonisation and processes of post-colonial nation-building very violently
- Cold War could and did act as a multiplier of violence
persistent interstate rivalries and tensions
- security system/order dominated by the US
capitalist rise and global integration
- Asia played a key increasing central role in the globally integrated capitalist order
US economic/security hegemony
2 key events of the early Cold War that led to globalisation and combatant militarisation of the Cold War
10/1949: end of Chinese Civil War and birth of PRC
- aim to be a quasi-superpower and model for rural, less-industrialised third world
1950-1953: Korean War
- civil, local and regional dimension interplayed inextricably with the international global dimension
the Korean War as an international and civil war
exploitation of superpower competition for their own purposes and objectives
actors of the Korean War
US
- credibility, strategy of containment of communism, balance of power in Asia
USSR
- opportunism, low risk, competition with China
China
- fear of the US, domestic consolidation, revolutionary credentials
2 Koreas
- exploitation of the superpower competition while being victims of it
why was the Korean War so important?
permanent division of Korea (leftovers from the Cold War) and high number of casualties
- still divided and no better example of the legacy of the Cold War
further globalisation of the Cold War and US commitment in Asia
- greater and permanent US commitment in Asia
- unilateral US security commitments with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan
China’s prestige and influence - anticipation of a rift with the USSR
Japan as part of the West
- in terms of security and economics
how did the position of Japan evolve as a consequence of these changes?
USSR excluded from occupation of Japan
Japan as part of the line of containment of communism
- frontline and key element as a parameter of containment in Asia
US occupation: partial “Americanisation” of Japan and curtailment of Japan’s sovereignty
military dependence on the US: Japan as an American “aircraft carrier”
- saved a lot on defence and became focused on economic development
model of bilateral security arrangements
focus on economic development: Japan as a free rider
- zero-cost security policy to focus on economic growth and competition
Japan’s new role in the international system
derivative strategic centrality but the key security partner of the US
- need for the US to reassert credibility of the strategy of containment
economic dimension: model and driver
domestic impact: strength of the left and quasi mono-party system
power of memory: war and Japan’s imperialism
- legacy and violence still very much aligned
consequences and paradoxes of Japan’s new role in the international system
economic success but limited regional impact
- successful in terms of an economic perspective but export-led with high-tech goods
- unique form of cooperation between governments and corporations
- grew at a rate only later matched by China (difference was that exports/items/goods were often and predominantly produced by Western firms outsourcing)
democracy and pacifism, but semi-authoritarian system
memory and weight of the past
- wounds and legacies still very much alive
ambivalent relationship with the US
- persistent tension with the US because of limited sovereignty but also legacy of WWII
no multilateral/institutionalised security architecture in Asia
key elements of the partial and fragile security architecture built in Asia/East Asia?
lack of multilateral institutionalisation as the north transatlantic space
US guarantee via network of bilateral mini lateral treaties and assurances
- extension of security guarantees/commitments via this network
complicated partnership and then competition between China and the USSR
pillars of the US security system in Asia
partnership with Japan
partnership with South Korea
partnership with Taiwan
ANZUS (1951)
SEATO (1954-1977)
what were the drivers/features/contradictions of this partial security system in Asia?
low and limited level of effective multilateral cooperation/integration
contingent and linked to perceived emergency of the 1950s, but became semi-permanent
- 1950s when communism seemed to be on the rise in Asia
persistence of national rivalries and absence of independent regional initiatives
- US over time guaranteed some sort of stability in the region
- arrangements as a way to control the new network of allies and to discipline them
- limitation of sovereignty and autonomy for control and to keep them down
racialised/civilisational security architecture?
- interpreted as a consequence of racialised/civilisational views of world affairs
what were the key tenets of the model of economic development and global capitalist integration, promoted in Asia?
Japan as a main actor
- post-1950s, Japanese economic miracle driven by exports
post-1960s development of Asian tigers
- very aggressive export-driven economies in Asia
post-1970s Chinese miracle
- opening and beginning of the Chinese miracle
top-down, state-piloted, export-led, high-tech
- common patterns were the key role of the state and key cooperation between public and private
- export-led growth characterised different experiences and integration
how do we include China in this equation?
revolutionary model with alleged global ambitions
- aimed at playing on 2 different tabes
- global and revolutionary power that could and should export its model
internal turmoil
- from 1949-1970s was plagued by internal difficulties and clashes
post-1970s geopolitical and economic shift
- shift towards integration within the capitalist order
- shift towards stability and support for the status quo
centrality of the relationship/interdependence with the US
- fairly strange and historically unique conditions
how can we characterise the relationship between the US and China today?
interdependence/mutual dependence
- China’s growth as vital to the American market
- goods produced in China vital to US consumers
collaboration/convergence (Chimerica)
competition/antagonism
- increasingly uneasy
- idea of a new Cold War with trade conflicts, technological competition, etc.
what are the basic historical drivers of Sino-American interdependence?
US market and commercial integration
- US as the most important market for Chinese goods
- dynamic of economic integration centred on US-China access
production/industrial outsourcing
US borrowing/Chinese lending: financial intedependence
- unique and unprecendented condition where the poorer country massively subsidises the ability of the much richer country to consume in debt
- China and Japan making up almost half of US public debt
growth of FDI
two superpowers in a league of their own
- bipolar in terms of national wealth, GDP and military spending
- second tier where China is the only country
