Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the changing nature of China’s policy toward Taiwan. Many of the sharpest debates in Taiwan, the US and elsewhere have been over whether recent modifications in policy represent a genuine overhaul in Beijing’s approach to Taipei. To simplify, some argue that meaningful change already is happening and that such developments warrant careful study and attention. But skeptics conclude that it isn’t happening. As one Taiwanese lawmaker complained, the new strategy is designed to “undermine the power of the [Taiwan] government…it’s a poison coated with sugar.” After analyzing various indicators, this study shows how theories and/or conceptual frameworks often employed in the fields of international relations and comparative politics might help analysts unravel some parts of the complicated puzzle that constitutes China’s policy toward Taiwan. In conclusion, however, the author suggests that it is probable that decision-makers in Taipei will require more facts—not theories—before they agree that there is a genuine “paradigm shift” in Beijing’s approach to the thorny Taiwan dispute.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Vietnam still remains associated with 'The Vietnam War', the worst of all wars since 1945 in terms of the number of battle deaths. But in the late 1980s, Vietnam went through a political transition, similar to the one China had gone through ten years earl

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite the centrality of state intentions in international politics, it is striking that there hasn't been systematic research on how state intentions affect international politics. This paper attempts to predict China's foreign policy in the next 20 yea

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Political antagonistic between China and Taiwan has lasted for more than fifty years. The liberal paradigm suggests that economic interdependence and integration can bring more potential for peace. However, the rapid economic integration between China and Taiwan in the previous decade did not prevent the tension from escalating. Some scholars argue that for two countries to cooperate, the habit of cooperation needs to be established, and the mutual trust needs to be developed. In other words, economic integration alone is not sufficient for political harmony between two polities without mutual trust and habits of cooperation. This paper aims to test this proposition with cases of China and Taiwan, where the increasingly severe environmental degradation such as the rapid decrease of marine species in the Taiwan Strait has affected both entities and the needs for cooperation have emerged. In addition to supporting the argument that cooperation in environmental aspects can help enhance mutual trust, establish habits of cooperation, forge cooperative trans-societal linkages, and create shared regional norms and identities, this paper argues that the environmental arena is a particularly promising start for peacemaking across the Taiwan Strait, because unlike economic issues, environmental cooperation does not ask countries to give up their sovereignty. Instead, it demands a more active implementation and exercise of governmental sovereignty to build an effective governance. Thus for China and Taiwan, where the sovereignty issues is extremely sensitive and neither sides ever opt to compromise, environmental cooperation, which can boost the practice of sovereignty on both sides, can greatly reduce the root of conflict and thus foster peacemaking.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Globalisation can in a polanyian sense be understood as a double movement. Societal reaction to the shortcomings of the corporate driven process of globalisation from above (the first movement) creates a counter movement from below (the second movement). The relations between different actors within the political landscape and the area of tensions between the two movements are characterised by the gramscian war of position and its power struggle over the hegemonic discourse. At times the constellation of political forces permits an institutionalised state of equilibrium built on converging interests between different social forces. During the Westphalia era with its nation-state project the social contract constituted the base for such an historic compromise. The end of the cold war and strengthened process of corporate globalisation has eroded the base for this social contract on a national level increasing development gaps not only between countries but also within countries. This paper addresses the question of room for manoeuvre for structural change in order to deal with present challenges within the Global Political Economy. It discusses how possibly the UN Millennium Declaration could be used in the ongoing discursive war of position between actors at the World Economic Forum in Davos (representing the first movement) and actors at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre (representing the second movement) in order create a social base for a new social contract albeit on the global level. Such a discussion also illustrates present potential of these arenas in contributing to a future global political economy of peace and development.