Alexander Bukh

These Islands Are Ours

The Social Construction of Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

"Territorial disputes are one of the main sources of tension in Northeast Asia. Disputes often arise out of a widely shared public perception that the region in question is of the utmost importance to the nation. That's frequently not the case, at least when it comes to socio-political and economic factors. The tiny and remote islets, known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, for instance, have no such value. In fact, in the early 1960s, both Japanese and Korean negotiators recognized their insignificance and considered blowing them up rather than resolving their ownership. Today, citizens and groups in both countries have mounted sustained campaigns to protect the islets as the heart of the nation, forcing politicians who would rather ignore the islets altogether to take them into account in their bilateral relationship. Such disputes are taking place throughout the region and have wide-ranging domestic and international consequences. Focusing on non-state actors rather than political elites, Alexander Bukh explains how and why apparently inconsequential territories become central to national and nationalist discourse. These Islands Are Ours draws on a vast array of primary research in four languages, particularly reports produced by the actors, interviews, and governmental data to challenge conventional wisdom. Bukh shows that public campaigns centering on territorial disputes are not about the territory in question. Territorial disputes that were historically unimportant, can become salient when non-state actors bring the issue to the fore of domestic political discourse. This book studies the origins and transformation of such campaigns in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, finding that they originate during times of economic, social, or political crisis. Demands from the public and non-state groups to recover or protect the territory are a rhetorical device used to criticize the perceived failures of the state during periods of upheaval. Because of the widely shared agreement that territory is of utmost importance to the state, disputed territory can be easily turned to this purpose. An unintended consequence of these campaigns is that, as a territory is increasingly identified as a national treasure, or of central value to state wholeness, it emerges as a symbol of national identity. These Islands Are Ours gives us a new way to understand the nature of territorial disputes and how they inform national identities by exploring their social construction, amplification, and ideological consequences"--

Produktdetails

• Studies in Asian Security
• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 232
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. März 2020
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 231mm x 152mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 504g
• ISBN-13: 9781503611894
• ISBN-10: 1503611892
• Artikelnr.: 57171869

Autorenporträt

Alexander Bukh is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the author of Japan's Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as Japan's 'Other' (2009) and the producer and co-director of the documentary This Island Is Ours: Defending Dokdo/Retrieving Takeshima (2016).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
This chapter sets up the context, and introduces the object of this study
and its main arguments. It introduces the main analytical premises of this
study and the notions of national identity entrepreneurship and critical
juncture. After outlining the methodology of this study, it concludes by
providing an overview of the empirical chapters and the main arguments.
1Japan's "Northern Territories"
chapter abstract
This chapter explores national identity entrepreneurship related to Japan's
territories occupied by the Soviet Union in the waning days of WWII and
focuses on the origins and transformations in the "Japan's inherent
territory" narrative. Originating in the critical juncture created by the
defeat, the Soviet occupation, and the domestic reforms, the "inherent
territory" framing of the occupied islands was initially utilized by the
grassroots movement as part of an attempt to draw attention to the economic
plight of those that suffered from the Soviet occupation. In the early
1950s, Hokkaido Prefecture embraced the irredentist cause as a means of
political struggle with Tokyo. From the late 1960s, as a result of Tokyo's
appropriation of the "Northern Territories" and cooptation of the
grassroots organizations, the narrative has changed significantly. From
legitimation strategy, the "inherent territory" has gradually transformed
into an end in itself, a symbol of injustice inflicted upon the nation.
2Shimane Prefecture's Quest for Takeshima
chapter abstract
This chapter traces the emergence and transformation of the Takeshima-
related campaign in Japan's Shimane Prefecture from the early postwar days
until the passage of the "Takeshima Day" ordinance in 2005. Originating in
the critical juncture of the defeat and subsequent reforms, Shimane
Prefecture's Takeshima- related campaign was initially driven by purely
economic concerns. From the mid-1960s on,wards however, as a result of the
central government's discrepancy in its policies related to the Northern
Territories and Takeshima, related policies, the campaign started to attain
a certain ideational character, with "Takeshima" becoming a symbol of
injustice inflicted upon the prefecture by Tokyo. Koizumi's intraparty and
fiscal reforms of the early 2000s created the structural impetus for
escalation in the Takeshima- related campaign, establishing the conditions
for the passage of the "Takeshima Day" ordinance.
3The "Protect Dokdo" Movement in South Korea
chapter abstract
Having its roots in the democratization movement, the "Protect Dokdo"
movement in South Korea was shaped by the post-1987 socio-political and
economic developments which that culminated in the 1997 financial crisis.
The "Protect Dokdo" movement was a response to this critical juncture, a
discursive attempt to re-create Korean national subjectivity by replicating
but also modifying the national identity construct of the democratization
movement. The eEmbracement of the Dokdo cause by the central government
from 2005 onwards, impacted influenced both the movement's structure and
its narrative. From the symbol of the Korean nation juxtaposed with the
perceived symbiosis of the domestic ruling elites and Japan, "Dokdo"
transformed into a symbol of the Korean "'self'" juxtaposed solely with the
Japanese "other."
4Taiwan's "Protect the Diaoyutai" Baodiao Movement
chapter abstract
Located in the nexus of two critical junctures-the "long 1960s" in the US
United States and the collapse of nationalist mythology of the Kuomintang
government-the Taiwanese movement for the protection of the Diaoyutai
iIslands promoted a new narrative on Chinese national identity. The
symbolism ascribed to the disputed islands was rather diverse, but the
dominant, left-leaning part of the movement used the disputed islands to
reproduce the Kuomintang- created narrative on national humiliation, while
replacing the Republic of China with the People's Republic of China as the
center of Chinese national subjectivity. In post-democratization Taiwan,
this narrative gained a new political meaning, becoming an integral part of
the legitimation strategy deployed by pro-unification political forces.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
This chapter summarizes the findings of this book. It draws a number of
conclusions regarding the factors that spur the emergence of territorial
disputes--related national identity entrepreneurship, and analyzes the
factors that account for the difference in the social reception of the
narratives in the respective societies. It also outlines the implications
of these case studies for our understanding of the social construction of a
disputed territory and for the broader constructivist International
Relations literature on national identity.