Japan And The New Silk Road

This book presents a study of Japanese involvement in post-Soviet Central Asia since the independence of these countries in 1991, examining the reasons for progress and stagnation in this multi-lateral relationship. Featuring interviews with decision-makers and experts from Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and the Philippines, this book argues that Japan’s impact on Central Asia and its connectivity has been underappreciated. It demonstrates that Japan’s infrastructural footprint in the New Silk Road significantly pre-dated China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and that the financial and policy contribution driven by Japanese officials was of a similar order of magnitude. It also goes on to show that Japan was the first major power outside of post-Soviet Central Asia to articulate a dedicated Silk Road diplomacy vis-à-vis the region before the United States and China, and the first to sponsor pivotal assistance. Being the first detailed analytical account of the diplomatic impact made on the New Silk Road by various Japanese actors beyond formal diplomacy, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese politics, as well as Asian politics and international politics more generally.

Japan on the Silk Road provides the historical background indispensable for understanding today’s Japan perspectives and policies in the vast area of Eurasia. For the first time it brings a detailed account of the history of Japanese activities along the Eurasian landmass across the Middle East and Central Asia in modern history.

Much is being written about China’s new 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, but much of the writing focuses on China itself, on the destinations of the road – Europe and the Middle East – or on the countries through which the road passes, such as Central Asia. This book takes a different approach, assessing the views of East Asian and other countries on the Belt and Road Initiative, both from a transnational and multidisciplinary perspective. The book considers international visions and limitations of the New Silk Road as a new paradigm, explores economic and trade aspects, including infrastructure networks, financial mechanisms, and the likely impact for other countries and regions, and analyses the likely implications for regional and trans-regional cooperation and competition. Western and Asian regional perspectives on the New Silk Road, including from India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Japan are considered throughout the book.

Focused on the "Belt and Road Initiative", this book discusses China’s opportunities to translate economic leverage into political outcomes. The central question is how China’s expanding economic influence will transform the Eurasian political landscape. Proposed in late 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road is the most ambitious foreign policy approach adopted thus far and represents the culmination of China’s search for a grand strategic narrative. Comparative methods and diverse conceptual frameworks are applied to contextualize and explore the political, economic, and cultural ramifications of the Belt and Road in order to shed light on its transformative significance, risks and opportunities.

From the Sunday Times and internationally bestselling author of The Silk Roads: everything you need to know about the present and future of the world'Masterly mapping out of a new world order' Evening Standard'Frankopan is a brilliant guide to terra incognita' The Times The New Silk Roads - Peter Frankopan's follow-up to the 'Book of the Decade', The Silk Roads - takes a fresh look at the network of relationships being formed along the length and breadth of the Silk Roads today.The world is changing dramatically and in an age of Brexit and Trump, the themes of isolation and fragmentation permeating the western world stand in sharp contrast to events along the Silk Roads, where ties have been strengthened and mutual cooperation established.Following the Silk Roads eastwards from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, The New Silk Roads provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected. In this prescient contemporary history, Peter Frankopan assesses the global reverberations of these continual shifts in the centre of power - all too often absent from headlines in the west. This important - and ultimately hopeful - book asks us to reread who we are and where we are in the world, illuminating the themes on which all our lives and livelihoods depend.The Silk Roads, a major reassessment of world history, has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

China’s New Silk Road initiative constitutes one of the most ambitious projects in recent decades designed to change the pattern of the global economic division of labour as well as the geostrategic balance of power. It has the potential to create a new fabric of industrial value creation that links China and East Asia via Central and South Asia with Europe, and to forge new regional and multilateral institutions that complement or compete with existing regional and global governance systems. First proposed in 2013, the new initiative is only now starting to be rolled-out, with trade relations gradually intensifying, and the first investment projects and infrastructure clusters becoming manifest. However, the full impact of the evolving new regional value chains on global goods flows, investment activity, supra-national institution building, as well as their wider international implications, remains undetermined. This book brings together leading scholars from economics, political science and area studies, who present the latest cutting-edge knowledge and the latest state-of-the-art economic and political analysis on how the new initiative is developing and likely to develop.

This book analyzes initiatives and concepts initiated by China, Japan and South Korea (the Republic of Korea) toward Central Asia to ascertain their impact on regionalism and regional cooperation in Central Asia. Using the case study of Uzbekistan, the book focuses on the formation of the discourse of engagement with the region of Central Asia through the notion of the Silk Road narrative. The author puts forward the prospects for engagement and cooperation in the region by analyzing initiatives such as the Eurasian/Silk Road Diplomacy of Japan of 1997, the Shanghai Process by China, the Korean corporate offensive, and other so-called Silk Road initiatives such as One Belt One Road (OBOR) or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The book argues that material factors and interests of these states are not the only motivations for engagement with Central Asia. The author suggests that cultural environment and identity act as additional behavioral incentives for the states’ cooperation as these factors create a space for actors in global politics. The book deconstructs Chinese narratives and foreign policy toward smaller states and presents a more balanced account of Central Asian international relations by taking into account Japanese and South Korean approaches to Central Asia. This book encourages wider theoretical discussions of Central Asian–specific forms of cooperation and relationships. It provides a timely analysis of Central Asian international relations and is a helpful reference for researchers and students in the fields of international relations, security studies, Asian politics, global politics, Central Asian Studies and Silk Road studies.