For more than 1500 years, Confucianism has played a major role in shaping Japan's history - from the formation of the first Japanese states during the first millennium AD, to Japan's modernization in the nineteenth century, to World War II and its still unresolved legacies across East Asia today. In an illuminating and provocative new study, Kiri Paramore analyses the dynamic history of Japanese Confucianism, revealing its many cultural manifestations, as religion and as a political tool, as social capital and public discourse, as well as its role in international relations and statecraft. The book demonstrates the processes through which Confucianism was historically linked to other phenomenon, such as the rise of modern science and East Asian liberalism. In doing so, it offers new perspectives on the sociology of Confucianism and its impact on society, culture and politics across East Asia, past and present.
This Element explores the primary modes by which rulers have exercised power and shaped political relations in Timor-Leste across four distinct periods. The contrast between coercion under colonial rule and consent expressed through the 1999 referendum on independence exerted a powerful influence on scholarship on Timor-Leste's politics and future. Since the restoration of independence in 2002, however, politics in Timor-Leste are best understood in terms of powerful economic constraints during the first Fretilin government (2002–6), and thereafter, thanks to revenue from the country's petroleum reserves, a ruling strategy based on a wide range of inducements (rather than genuine consent).
Writings on post-war Japanese politics have tended to take for granted the dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as inevitable, without questioning how this came about. This book analyses th
What does the future hold for Afghanistan? How will the war there affect the already unstable politics of Central Asia? In War at the Top of the World, veteran foreign correspondent Eric Margolis pre
This is a study of Vietnam's socialist transition and state transformation, generally known as đổi mới. It examines the drivers of socialist-regime change, the nature of the đổi mới state, and the basis of regime legitimacy in Vietnam. The Element argues that despite its 'one-party rule' label, the party-state apparatus that channels said rule has become fragmented. State-building during the đổi mới period involved negotiations and bargaining that redefine authority and power relations within the state apparatus. The party-state's accountability projects are designed to target the specific self-aggrandizing tendencies of the state apparatus, its policies, and abuse of state power. At the leadership level, patterns of resource allocation underlying the đổi mới growth model as well as the VCP's cadre rotation approach have accommodated central and sub-national state elites across sectors and levels, helping shore up the legitimacy of the đổi mới state in the eyes of the state elite. The
Drawing data from multiple sources, Un argues that following the 1993 United Nations intervention to promote democracy, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) perpetuated a patronage state weak in administrative capacity but strong in coercive capacity. This enabled them to maintain the presence of electoral authoritarianism, but increased political awareness among the public, the rise in political activism among community-based organizations and a united opposition led to the emergence of a counter-movement. Sensing that this counter-movement might be unstoppable, the CPP has returned Cambodia to authoritarianism, a move made possible in part by China's pivot to Cambodia.
This book explores a central tension in identity politics: how the state, civil society, and people want to create and maintain cultural, religious, and social cohesion while paradoxically their every
"Asia's Flying Geese connects social organization, economics, and politics to bring the study of East Asian regionalism to life. In this landmark book on an extremely important topic, Walter F. Hatch
Traditionally, the South China Sea (SCS) issue was not on the negotiation table between the United States and China. However, the tensions between the United States and China over the SCS have gradual
During the period 1960-1972, particularly in East Asia, Cold War international politics saw significant change from a bipolar structure, centring on the United States and Soviet Union, to a more compl
This multilayered historical ethnography of Bodh Gaya — the place of Buddha’s enlightenment in the north Indian state of Bihar — explores the spatial politics surrounding the transformation of the Mah
Uzbekistan is strategically well placed in Central Asia and wider Eurasia. A representative depiction of the international politics of Central Asia requires acknowledging the importance of Uzbekistan,
This book is the first comprehensive and comparative analysis of the U.S. and Japanese foreign policy formulation and implementation processes from 1961 to 1978 that explores the long-term strategic s
This book provides a detailed analysis of how governance in Singapore has evolved since independence to become what it is today, and what its prospects might be in a post-Lee Kuan Yew future. Firstly,
This book examines the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute between Japan and China and the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute between Japan and Korea, in order to offer new perspectives on the possible approaches towards ame
This groundbreaking book examines the changing Chinese legal system since 1978. In addition to historical analyses of changes at the economic, political-legal, and social levels, Liang gives special a
