Volume XVII Winter 2012

Perceptions continues to publish special issues on subjects and debates in international relations, and this issue and the next will focus on the international politics of East Asia. Member of our Editorial Board Selçuk Çolakoğlu, managing editor Engin Karaca and I, have worked closely to collect valuable analyses on different dimensions of this topic. East Asia is at the centre of the scholarly debate and occupies a great deal of policy makers’ time in different parts of the globe. The US’s Asia pivot policy is a visible example of the policy interest in the region. The scholarly debate examines intra-regional relations and relations with outside actors. There is also a new debate on the role of East Asia in a new multilateral world order. We will touch upon almost all of these topics in these two special issues on East Asia. The geographical distribution of the contributors is also representative of the subjects of these special issues. 

This first issue consists of six articles on the international politics of East Asia. Based on the historical evolution of the US becoming a major player in the Pacific region, Joel Campbell discusses the US’s relations with the Asian countries of Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan. Concerning Sino-American relations, the author identifies a transformation from the reintegration of China into the global political economy to increased tensions, especially in strategic and economic issue areas, and also from America’s unofficial relationship with Taiwan. Kaseda Yoshinori discusses Japan’s realist foreign policy towards East Asia and looks at how Japan is strengthening its own missile capability, enhancing its alliance, and building new security ties with states that have similar security concerns. Anna Kireeva discusses Russia’s relations with China, examining how relations both relate to creating a new axis of power in the region and to Russia’s policy in its own East Asian region. Kireeva argues that ASEAN’s desire to welcome Russia as a balancer in the region which provides new opportunities for Russia to intensify its cooperation with East Asian countries. Considering the recent political developments in Taiwan, including the development of a weaker ruling party, Wan-Chin Tai discusses the major issues concerning Taiwan’s relations with the United States, Japan and China. Chong Jin Oh discusses how the North Korean nuclear problem, the revision of the South Korean-US alliance, Japanese militarisation, and the rise of China have overshadowed South Korea’s emergence as an international player. Selçuk Çolakoğlu discusses the main determinants of Turkey’s foreign policy towards East Asia with a focus on security concerns and economic interests, examining Turkish-East Asian relations in four historical periods, highlighting the basic characteristics of relations in each period. 

In addition to the articles focusing on East Asia, there are two on Turkish foreign policy and one on Afghanistan. Ali Aslan uses post- foundational/poststructural analytical tools to study the nexus between hegemony and foreign policy in his article. He examines the transformation in Turkish-American relations in the two main periods since the AK Party came to power: the era of a “lack of understanding” between the years 2002 and 2006, and the era after the parties had come to a “new understanding” in 2006. Marianna Charountaki discusses the increasing importance of northern Iraq in regional politics and examines Turkey’s recent foreign policy towards the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). On Afghanistan, Imtiyaz Gul Khan presents a comprehensive record of the impact of the conflicts on the country’s human capital from the Soviet occupation up to the US invasion. Khan also examines how civilians have been affected from US and NATO operations.

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