Geo-Politics in Northeast Asia

1. Debunking the Myth of Northeast Asia Yong-Chool Ha and Akihiro Iwashita Part I: Reconsidering Geo-Political Pathways 2. The Transformation of China in Northeast Asia since 1990: From Regional Power to Global Power Yoshifumi Nakai 3. The Impact of the Donald Trump Presidency on Northeast Asia Yasuhiro Izumikawa 4. Crises for North Korea and its Neighbors Mitsuhiro Mimura Part II: (B)ordering Society and the Region 5. Maritime Challenges to the Northeast Asian Region Yuji Fukuhara 6. Chinese Land Deals and Migration in the Russian Far East: Positionality Changes in the Borderlands Norio Horie 7. Exorcising Phantoms: Developments at Border Islands in Northeast Asia Naoki Amano Part III: A Shared Future? 8. Competing Sovereignty Regimes within Northeast Asia Mihoko Kato 9. Economic Integration in Northeast Asia from the 1990s Shinichiro Tabata 10. In Search of Northeast Asia’s Least Common Denominator: Regional Issues through the Lens of Political Culture David Wolff 11. The Politics of (Mis)Trust in Northeast Asia: Social Inclusion, Empathy and Reconciliation Naomi Chi 12. Conclusion: Reflecting on Regional Community in Northeast Asia Akihiro Iwashita and Edward Boyle

Biography

Akihiro Iwashita is a professor at the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University. His research focuses on the Sino-Russian borderlands and on the Japan-Russia “Northern Territories” issue. He has authored and edited several books and numerous articles, notably Japan’s Border Issues: Pitfalls and Prospects (Routledge, 2016) and A 4,000 Kilometer Journey Along the Sino-Russian Border (Slavic Research Center, 2004). He served as Coordinator of Border Region in Transition XII Conference (Fukuoka-Busan: 2012) and as President of Association for Borderlands Studies (2015–2016). He has received many grants and fellowship, including at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (2007–2008), and prizes, such as IBRU’s 2nd Milefsky Award (2019), the 24th Regional Publication Prize (2011), and the 4th Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Prize (2007). He was also nominated for the Asahi Newspaper’s 6th Osaragi Jirō Prize for Commentary (2006).

Yong-Chool Ha is the Korean Foundation Professor at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, and is an emeritus professor at Seoul National University. He has written extensively on North Korea, South Korea, East Asia, and Russian foreign policy, as well as on late industrialization and social change. Particular research interests include community building and international relations theories, and changing elite-mass relations in late industrializing countries. He is currently finishing a book examining Late Industrialization, the State and Social Change in a comparative perspective. Major publications include The Dynamics of Strong States (SNU Press, 2006), Late Industrialization, the State and Tradition: the Emergence of Neofamilism in Korea (CPS, 2007), and the edited volumes Colonial Rule and Social Change in Korea, 1910–1945 (University of Washington Press, 2013) and International Impact of Colonial Rule in Korea, 1910–1945 (University of Washington Press, 2019).

Edward Boyle is an associate professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, and is editor of the Japan Review. He researches the boundaries and borderland spaces of Japan and its neighborhood, as well as in India’s Northeast and in the wider Asia-Pacific. He has written extensively on historical borders in Northeast Asia, and his doctoral research examined the incorporation of Hokkaido into Japan prior to the nineteenth century. Subsequent research on the contemporary transformation of Japan’s borders and policies has been supported by JSPS, SSHRC, Jean Monnet Network funding, and the Borders in Globalization project. Particular interests include maps and representation, territoriality, infrastructure, heritage, and memory. Recent projects include an investigation into the Borders of Memory that shape the political role of heritage within and between Asian states.