THE LONG PEACE OF EAST ASIA
Rethinking Asia and International Relations
Series Editor: Emilian Kavalski,
University of Western Sydney, Australia
This series provides thoughtful consideration both of the growing prominence of Asian actors on the global stage and the changes in the study and practice of world affairs that they provoke. It offers a comprehensive parallel assessment of the full spectrum of Asian states, organisations, and regions and their impact on the dynamics of global politics.
The series encourages conversation on:
what rules, norms, and strategic cultures are likely to dominate international life in the Asian Century;
how will global problems be reframed and addressed by a rising Asia;
which institutions, actors, and states are likely to provide leadership during such shifts to the East;
whether there is something distinctly Asian about the emerging patterns of global politics.
Such comprehensive engagement not only offers a critical assessment of the actual and prospective roles of Asian actors, but rethinks the concepts, practices, and frameworks of analysis of world politics.
Other titles in this series
North Korea and Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia
Edited by Tae-Hwan Kwak and Seung-Ho Joo
Post-Conflict Development in East Asia
Edited by Brendan M. Howe
Chinas New Diplomacy
Rationale, Strategies and Significance
Zhiqun Zhu
New Approaches to Human Security in the Asia-Pacific
China, Japan and Australia
Edited by William T. Tow, David Walton and Rikki Kersten
The Ashgate Research Companion to Chinese Foreign Policy
Edited by Emilian Kavalski
The Long Peace of East Asia
TIMO KIVIMKI
University of Helsinki, Finland
First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright Timo Kivimki 2014
Timo Kivimki has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Kivimki, Timo.
The long peace of East Asia / by Timo Kivimki.
pages cm. (Rethinking Asia and international relations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-2229-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-4724-2230-9 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-4724-2231-6 (epub) 1. East AsiaForeign relations. 2. Conflict
managementEast Asia. 3. Peace-buildingEast Asia. I. Title.
JZ5584.E18K58 2014
327.1'72095dc23
2013033627
ISBN: 978-1-472-42229-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-55595-9 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
Tables
Preface
In 2001 I published an article on the Long Peace of ASEAN in the Journal of Peace Research. I focused on the fact that despite endless discussions on the problems of Southeast Asian conflict-resolution capacity, the lack of regional pooling of sovereignty, the weakness of crisis management institutions and so on, the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have so far remained very peaceful. I noted that many of the Europe/West-centric approaches to security and conflict failed to explain the relative peace of East Asia. The fact that one does not recognize the characteristics that were associated with peace in Western Europe does not mean that Southeast Asia could not be peaceful. Southeast Asia did not have many wars and its conflicts tended to be much less intensive in the area of the ASEAN, even if the Southeast Asian approach to peace does not correspond to the approach of Western Europe, which has become the default approach to peace in the literature of international relations theory and peace and conflict studies. Over the years I have developed my ideas on the reasons for the relative peace in Southeast Asia. I also came to realize that even if pacification of Northeast Asia, including China has taken place with a slightly different timetable, the recipes are rather similar to the ones found in Southeast Asia. It seems that the entire East Asia defies many of the assumptions regarding the causes of peace. This is why I thought that studying the recipes of peace in East Asia could be interesting not only for the sake of the understanding of East Asia, but for the enrichment of the theory of international relations and the study of peace and conflicts. For me the project to understand the Long Peace of East Asia proved that I was right: East Asian experience can emancipate us from many of the Europe-centric biases of our thinking of peace. At the same time it gives many new tools to the toolbox of peacemaking. I hope that this book convinces the reader of this.
I owe a great debt to many people who were helpful to my research. I have been impressed and influenced by the great names of East Asian studies, who have also commented and/or encouraged my work. Amitav Acharya, Robert Ross, Surpong Peou, David Kang, Kevin Clements, Chung-in Moon, Jong Kun Choi, Keyuan Zou, Emilian Kavalski, Zhang Tiejun and Phar Kim Beng deserve my deepest gratitude.
Furthermore, I would like to thank some great international relations theorists and peace-and conflict scholars, foremost Heikki Patomki, Ole Waever, Liisa Laakso, Teivo Teivainen, Raimo Vyrynen, Peter Wallensteen, Matilda Lindgren, Isak Svensson and Erik Melander, for their help, encouragement and constructive criticism during the process of research for this book.
Academic and practical specialists of particular conflict situations also helped me with their special insights to some of the problems that I had to deal with in this research project. Djohermansyah Djohan, Delsy Ronnie, Saifuddin Bantasyam, Santos Winarso and Geir Helgesen among a number of others deserve my special thanks.
I am very grateful for my current employer, the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki for the encouragement, academic freedom and facilitation of my writing process at the very end of the writing. The administrative framework and scholarly atmosphere have been positive and encouraging. To some extent it has returned my faith in academic institutions as allies, rather than enemies of scholarly innovation.
I would like to thank my language editor, Leena Hskuldsson, who did a great service to my readers in straightening out not only my language but often also my thoughts related to the difficult issues of peace and war. Thanks are also due to the great editorial team at Ashgate.
