The conventional portrayal of Japan’s role in international affairs is of a passive political player which – despite its position as the world’s second largest economic power – punches below its weight on the world stage: its foreign policy driven by Washington, mercantilism and constrained by domestic pacifism. This book examines Japan’s emerging identity as an important participant in conflict prevention and peace-building in Southeast and South Asia, demonstrating that Japan has increasingly sought a positive and active political role commensurate with its economic pre-eminence. The book considers Japanese involvement in many of the region’s most serious recent conflicts: including Japan’s part in the brokering and maintaining of peace in Cambodia, which in 1992 saw the first dispatch of troops abroad by Tokyo since the end of World War II, and the attempts to bring peace to Aceh, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Mindanao. The Japanese example, when compared with other countries prominent in the fields of conflict prevention, suggests that Tokyo – given its pacifist strategic culture – relies on diplomacy and Official Development Assistance rather than peace enforcement through military means. Overall, this book provides a lucid appraisal of Japan’s overall foreign policy, as well as its new role in conflict prevention and peace-building - analysing the reasons behind this shift towards an active international role and assessing the degree of success it has enjoyed.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been one of the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing regions over the years. Its average combined GDP growth rate is more than 6% and the total combined GDP was valued at US$3.0 trillion in 2018. ASEAN countries have managed to significantly reduce their national poverty over the last few decades. Although a correlation exists between economic growth and poverty reduction, millions of people in ASEAN countries still do not have sufficient incomes to fulfill their basic needs including food, shelter, clothes and sanitation. This book is a collection of working group papers contributed by members of Network of ASEAN-China Think-tanks (NACT) and covers best practices on poverty alleviation in ASEAN member states as well as in China, and ASEAN-China cooperation. It discusses experiences of ASEAN member states and China such as with regard to national policies, principles, definitions, approaches, progress, and challenges in poverty reduction. It reviews and evaluates the way forward including existing joint projects, opportunities, and challenges in the future cooperation and offers policy recommendations from both national and regional perspectives to help policymakers better cope with the daunting poverty challenges.

Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia examines the causes of lasting and complex tensions in the region from underlying political, historical, military and economic perspectives; discusses their historical development and political-economic implications for the world; and explores possible solutions to build lasting peace. The book is unique in that it approaches the topic from the historical perspective of each constituent country in the region. Major global powers such as the United States and Russia have also closely engaged in the political and economic affairs of this region through a network of alliances, diplomacy, trade and investment. The book also discusses the influence of these external powers over the crisis, their political and economic objectives in the region, their strategies and the dynamics that their engagement has created. Both South Korea and North Korea have sought reunification of the Korean peninsula, which will have a substantial impact on the region. The book examines its justification, feasibility and effects for the region. The book discusses the role of Mongolia in the context of the power dynamics in Northeast Asia. A relatively small country, in terms of its population, Mongolia has rarely been examined in this context; Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia makes a fresh assessment of its potential role.

This book examines Japan’s foreign policy and its emerging identity as an important participant in conflict prevention and peacebuilding in Southeast and South Asia, demonstrating that Japan has increasingly sought a positive and active political role commensurate with its economic pre-eminence.

This book explores hybrid peacebuilding in Asia, focusing on local intermediaries bridging the gaps between incumbent governments and insurgents, national leadership and the grassroots constituency, and local stakeholders and international intervenors. The contributors shed light on the functions of rebel gatekeepers in Bangsamoro, the Philippines, and Buddhist Peace monks in Cambodia to illustrate the mechanism of dialogue platforms through which gaps are filled and the nature of hybrid peace is negotiated. The book also discusses the dangers of hybrid peacebuilding by examining the cases of India and Indonesia where national level illiberal peace was achieved at the expense of welfare of minority groups. They suggest a possible role of outsiders in hybrid peacebuilding and mutually beneficial partnership between them and local intermediaries.

Triangular relations which frame China and Japan as two sides of an isosceles triangle usually focus on the United States as the significant third side. This edited book examines another relatively underexplored set of triangular relations—those between China, Japan and Southeast Asia. The region, comprised of eleven small and medium-size states, is often considered inconsequential in the tempestuous world of international politics where political clout, economic prowess, military strength and soft power matter most. Often seen as easily dominated by extra-regional great powers, this volume reconsiders the region’s relationship with China and Japan, their two Asian neighbours to the northeast which also happen to be the world’s second and third largest economies. While China and Japan do compete for turf in Southeast Asia, states in the region do not perceive themselves as strategic pawns of these two great Asian powers but instead as proactively engaging China and Japan in the region. The country-specific case studies of this book collectively support the thesis that the Southeast Asian states actively seek to manoeuvre between China and Japan for their own advantage and at the same time grapple with developments in Northeast Asia through regional integration efforts. Through the establishment of benchmark norms and values, Southeast Asia attempts to socialise China and Japan and other external powers to the ASEAN way. Indeed, Southeast Asia as a region is now the driver of East Asian multilateralism and regionalism, and the East Asian reality is that Southeast Asia is a major political, economic and cultural player in its own right vis-à-vis the great powers.

The twentieth century is as remarkable for its world wars as it is for its efforts to outlaw war in international and constitutional law and politics. Japan in the World examines some of these efforts through the life and work of Shidehara Kijuro, who was active as diplomat and statesman between 1896 until his death in 1951. Shidehara is seen as a guiding thread running through the first five decades of the twentieth century. Through the 1920s until the beginning of the 1930s, his foreign policy shaped Japan's place within the community of nations. The positive role Japan played in internation.

The Fukuda Doctrine has been the official blueprint to Japan's foreign policy towards Southeast Asia since 1977. This book examines the Fukuda Doctrine in the context of Japan-Southeast Asia relations, and discusses the possibility of a non-realist approach in the imagining and conduct of international relations in East Asia. The collapse of 54 years of Liberal Democratic Party rule and the advent of a new Democratic Party of Japan raises the question of whether the Fukuda Doctrine is still relevant as a framework to analyse Tokyo's policy and behaviour towards Southeast Asia. Looking at its origins and norms amidst three decades of change, the book argues that the Fukuda Doctrine is still relevant to Japan-Southeast Asian relations, and should be extended to relations between China and Japan if an East Asian Community is to be built. The book goes on to discuss the Fukuda Doctrine in relation to the power shift in Asia, including the revitalization of Japan's security role. By providing a detailed understanding of a non-western perspective of Japan's relationship with Southeast Asia, this book is a useful contribution for students and scholars of Asian Studies, Politics and International Relations.

"This book was refined and solidified especially during the international workshop on 'Reconstructing the Architecture of International Peacebuilding' held between 11th-13th September 2019 at the Global Asia Research Centre, Waseda University [...]." (Acknowledgments).