Asia Europe Journal最新文献

Global changes in power distribution and successive international crises have inevitably affected the European Union (EU) as an international player, heightening geo-economical and geopolitical considerations. China’s growing economic and military weight is a particular concern, not only as it relates to the Sino-US confrontation but also due to its economic and political influence in the Asia region, a region where the EU has significant trade and investment interests and depends heavily on the safe passage of maritime transport in the Indo-Pacific oceans. Relying on studies of economic statecraft, this research will explore the types and nature of economic instruments that the EU has introduced to defend or promote security relations with Asia and whether they have advanced the geopolitical ends of the EU. It will suggest that the EU has made considerable strides in linking trade/economic tools with geostrategic objectives, in promoting non-traditional security aspects generally, in consolidating and expanding EU connectivity and security partnerships with Asian countries, and in enhancing its naval presence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Uzbekistan has the potential to become a regional hub linking Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe. In order to inform the implementation of Uzbekistan’s Strategy for the Development of the Transport System, a triangulated research approach was followed to develop a spatially and commodity-level freight flow model for the country. The model outputs highlight that freight flow distribution is heavily skewed towards the East, that the country has significant exposure to freight risks beyond the borders due to the inordinate long distances of cross-border flows, and that demand for transport, and logistics costs, are high relative to gross domestic product. Transport policy, infrastructure development and the role of transport and logistics in development planning should therefore be prioritised as a strategic input into economic growth and development success, including the intelligence that enables these activities. There seem to be opportunities for domestic and regional consolidation, which can lead to the improved use of rail and intermodal solutions and support the development of effective special economic zones. These outputs can be refined with access to more detailed data.

This article analyzes the development of paradiplomatic relations between subnational governments in China and Sweden. The empirical material comprises official documents, media reports, and interviews, and correspondence with local decision makers. Following steady growth in the 1990s and 2000s, the number of paradiplomatic agreements between the two countries declined dramatically at the end of the 2010s. To our knowledge, this extensive “local decoupling” is unprecedented, at least in the history of modern paradiplomacy between Europe and China. The decline can primarily be explained by three interrelated factors: worsening bilateral relations between Sweden and China, growing Swedish concern about the human rights situation in China, and the lack of activity in some of the cooperation projects. Rather than pursuing goals such as peacebuilding and economic benefit, generally described as the main drivers behind local governments’ international activities, several subnational governments in Sweden deemed it appropriate to terminate cooperation with their Chinese counterparts due to other concerns. This development demonstrates the usefulness of a more constructivist perspective of paradiplomacy.

The fragmentation of international law is a long-standing issue. However, it continues to be a topic of debate. While investigating this phenomenon, specifically the relation between international labor law and trade law, the author addresses the following questions: How does the fragmentation between these two regimes appear? What are the benefits and challenges associated with this fragmentation? Recently, with the rise of new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), there has been a trend toward incorporating labor rules into the international trade law regime. By analyzing and comparing the “Trade and Sustainable Development” chapters of two European Union (EU) FTAs, the EU-Korea FTA and the EU-Vietnam FTA, the author explores whether this incorporation effectively reduces the fragmentation of international law and its negative impacts. The author argues that while it may seem beneficial, this partial incorporation may exacerbate the fragmentation of international law. In particular, the universality and inalienability of labor rights as human rights are not adequately protected. Moreover, the adverse effects of the fragmentation of international law remain unresolved. Therefore, although incorporating labor articles into FTAs is a step in the right direction, more coherent measures are essential to address the challenges caused by the fragmentation of international law.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Japanese investments in Italy from 1972 to 2019 as a bipartite network where groups and actors are represented by Japanese parent and affiliate firms, respectively. By using a network approach, we identify how deeply rooted a Japanese firm is in Italy, where it decides to invest, and whether it decides to co-invest with a Japanese partner. We observe that a) most of the Japanese affiliates are located in Northern Italy; b) the gap with the number of affiliates in Southern Italy increased over time; and c) that the intermediary role of sogo shosha for Japanese manufacturing investments in Italy has decreased in the recent years.

The European Union (EU) has been seen as a key actor in constructing global environmental governance, and China has seen its rising role in global environmental politics. The Sino-EU environmental cooperation plays an important role in enabling global governance. And, while a wide range of studies on European environmental politics and the Western academic perspectives of observing China’s environmental governance have been identified widely, it remains very weak in understanding China’s construction of environmental discourse concerning Europe. This research employs the environmental discourse approach to observe the case of China and develop the research question: how have environmental discourses concerning Europe been constructed in China. The data for observing the discourse is collected from newspapers, academic articles, publications of environmental stakeholders, and governmental statements on environmental cooperation. The main finding is that the transition discourse and the liberal market discourse have been growing in the environmental discussion while the justice discourse has received weak attention in China. This research argues that the evolution of the environmental discourse has been determined by the types of sources, the non-state actors making the discourses, the positive image of European environmental affairs, and China’s supportive attitudes towards the Sino-EU cooperation.

Over 10,000 South Korean nurses were sent to West Germany in the 11-year period between 1965 and 1976. It is known that they were dispatched because of South Korea’s need for capital and expertise after the Korean War (1950–1953). To assist in this endeavor, West Germany helped South Korea through development support (educational aid). However, Korean nurses were not simply trainees since they had received a proper education and qualifications. Thus, this “educational aid” could critically be termed little more than “labor trade” because the highly educated nurses were forced to take work with lower wages than their background warranted.

In line with the global trend toward electrification, the focus of recent Chinese investment in Europe has shifted to the field of electric vehicles. The largest and most controversial investment is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited’s (CATL) battery factory in Hungary, following its initial success in Germany. Although the Hungarian national government and local authorities unanimously supported this mega gigafactory, it has provoked heated disputes among opposition parties, experts, and local communities. Drawing on over 900 news articles related to CATL published between April 2022 and February 2024, this study examines how CATL’s investment is portrayed in the Hungarian media. Using content analysis, I analyzed the overall sentiments of the CATL project by divergent media outlets with varied political orientations. Using narrative analysis, I further investigated how narratives in the Hungarian media consolidate the support and opposition to the CATL project. The findings shed light on the controversial debate over the case of CATL in Hungary and offer significant implications for Hungary and other integrated peripheral countries competing for foreign battery-related investments. Moreover, the findings suggest the importance of implementing locally tailored corporate social responsibility initiatives to ensure the successful and long-term development of Chinese investments in the host country.

The article has two objectives. The first one is to advance the existing studies on civil wars by developing a comparative approach. It explores similarities and differences between the Finnish and Korean experiences. The broader objective of the article is to initiate a project to explore potential connections between the Nordic region and the Korean peninsula. There are various direct and indirect linkages between the Nordic countries and Korea. Finland had long been part of Sweden and then part of Russia. Finland achieved independence, but it was immediately overshadowed by the war. Korea had long been influenced heavily by China and then colonised by Japan. Independence brought sunshine on the peninsula, but it soon disappeared with the Korean War. Against this backdrop, the article investigates the civil wars in Finland and Korea. In order to go beyond the existing research, the article pays attention to popular culture (film) depicting the two wars. The article also sheds light on how Finland and Korea have tried to pave the way to reconciliation. If the war still divides Finland even after 100 years, the reconciliation process in Korea would be much more complex and difficult.