Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript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: Proceeding
Abstract: Is the liberal peace a Western construct alien to non-Western cultures? Two centuries after Kant published the “perpetual peace,” Western states that share liberal democracy and are bound together by international law and trading networks have established a separate zone of peace. However, many non-Western states have either descended into zones of war or challenged the liberal order. Various efforts at promoting peace have had counterproductive results. Is this because Western countries have not pursued proper foreign policy? Or is this because the liberal peace is not exportable to the non-Western world? One way to answer these questions is to examine if the three “definitive articles” of Kant's perpetual peace – republican government, international law, and trade interdependence – exist in other civilizations. Since September 11, 2001, many scholars have studied Islamic conceptions of war and peace. But policymakers have been worried about China's rise to power for most of the post-Cold-War era. Beijing has responded to Washington's talk of a coming “China threat” by emphasizing its intention for a “peaceful rise.” Chinese officials and scholars have revived Confucianism to support their argument. They do not seem to realize that the Confucian tradition in fact contains all three elements of the liberal peace. The proposed project traces the three Kantian elements in both historical Europe (from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment to the modern era) and historical China (from the classical era in 656-221 BC through the dynastic era in 221 BC - AD1911 to the modern era). It examines why liberal elements contributed to liberal transformation in the former but not the latter. The analysis will (1) highlight inadequacies in Kant’s formulation and contingencies in the emergence of the liberal peace in the West, (2) debunk claims to cultural exceptionalism, (3) suggest a refined China policy that goes beyond containment versus engagement but encourages revival of China’s indigenous liberal legacy, and (4) facilitate a multicultural approach to the liberal peace.

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
Abstract: Northeast Asia is often regarded as having an uneasy atmosphere, with tensions between the countries making the region sometimes look unpeaceful. North Korean arms tests and other aggressive gestures also contribute to this view, as well as tensions between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. My study tries to look closer at the development of the relations between the most important states in the region, China, Japan and South Korea, assuming that the above-mentioned conflicts are not dominating the relations between the three countries. The study tries to assess changes in the triadic and dyadic relations which don not get as much attention as the conflicts, but will also have an impact on the future relations in the region.These changes are studied by using the concept of Security Community that has been first developed by Karl W. Deutsch and later been elaborated by Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett. The larger goal of my study is to examine the long term stability of the peace between the three countries. A pluralistic Security Community is defined as a community of states having "dependable expectations of peaceful change". Whilst Deutsch developed the concept of the Security Community with reference to the North Atlantic region, Adler and Barnett and Amitav Acharya expanded the scope of the concept to other regions in the world. They also based it on constructivist ideas, giving it more theoretical rigidity, and added the idea of a development pattern with different stages in building a Security Community from nascent to mature. This now allows to study Security Communities that have not fully developed yet, such as in Northeast Asia. Following this concept, the key factors in the development of a Security Community are transactions, norms and institutions. In my work I study the changing relations of the three countries by looking at changes in these factors in different issue areas, with special focus on the development in the maritime domain, which seems to display a case of change towards closer co-operation.

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.