Neil Renwick

Identities in international relations

Acknowledgements - Notes on the Contributors - Prologue R.Tooze - Introduction J.Krause & N.Renwick - Society, Modernity and Social Change: Approaches to Nationalism and Identity C.Farrands - Beyond the Inside/Outside Divide G.Youngs - Globalisation and Collective Identities J.A.Scholte - Ethnicity: Inside-Out or Outside-In? R.Davies - Gendered Identities in International Relations J.Krause - Nationalism and Middle Eastern Identities M.Law - La Lucha Continua? Identity and the Nicaraguan Revolution L.Pettiford - Re-reading Europes Identities? N.Renwick - Colonialism and Sub-Saharan Identities N.Poku - Citizenship: Identification and the Global R.Smith - Closing Thoughts J.Krause & N.Renwick - Index

Pirates? Maritime piracy and societal security in Southeast Asia

For many Piracy conjures up romanticised notions of English, Dutch and French seafaring adventurers of the seventeenth century. Today, however, piracy remains a problem of national and international concern, particularly in and near to the territorial waters of Southeast Asia. This paper examines contemporary piracy in the light of theoretical developments within International Relations and Security Studies that have broadened the scope of traditional militarily‐defined security. Furthermore it examines the various institutional responses of governments and international agencies alike to effectively combat the threat from piracy while similarly examining the possible causal factors behind the rising numbers of attacks on commercial and non‐commercial shipping.

Millennium Development Goal 1: poverty, hunger and decent work in Southeast Asia

Abstract This article considers three questions: 1) what progress has been made in achieving MDG1 targets?; 2) what challenges remain?; and 3) what more could and should be done? To examine these questions, the article assesses the progress of Southeast Asia in seeking to achieve MDG1. It argues that the region is ‘on track’ to achieve MDG 1 targets, although significant challenges such as inequality remain. Economic growth, significant structural change and incorporation into global value chains have contributed to MDG progress. However, this is a double-edged sword as exposure to global economic turbulence can increase. The longer-term reduction of poverty, inequality and social exclusion is a question of empowerment of local producers within value chains–a shift in economic power and control through pro-poor strategies strong enough to effect substantive structural change. The article outlines key concepts; identifies the main characteristics of Southeast Asian poverty; outlines what more needs to be done; and concludes by reprising the articles findings and weighing the prospects for 2010–15 and beyond.

China's Role in Burma's Development

China has been a long‐standing partner for Burma (Myanmar), providing important political, military and economic support. Burmas reform process poses new questions and challenges for China. Chinas interests in Burma are primarily economic‐driven by its need for strategic resources and are highly controversial. This study argues that Chinas approach to Burmas development is determined by its own national economic interests. Beijings view is that this is a ‘win‐win’ situation. This is a view under critical review in Burma as it seeks to re‐balance its foreign relationships. This article details the critical point at which Sino–Burmese relations now stand, explains Burmas current development profile, outlines Chinese involvement in Burma and explains Chinas development approach to Burma in terms of Chinas national economic, political and security interests.

Southeast Asia and the global ‘war on terror’ discourse

This study explores global and regional war on terror discourses. It focuses upon language construction ‘framing’ the character of, and global and regional responses to, terrorism. It is concerned with social power and critiques the war on terror discourse globally and in Southeast Asia. Central to this are constructions of Islam. The analysis assesses the complexities behind often essentialized depictions of Islam. The paper argues that a deeper understanding of the complexities of the discursive dimension of the war on terror can help provide an additional understanding of the ideational background for operational counterterrorism policies and practices.

Identities, Inclusion, Exclusion and America

The central interest of this book lies in the questions of what is the nature of the American identity that is projected into the global arena? How is this distinctive identity constructed? What implications arise from this identity and process of construction for patterns of inclusion and exclusion in American society and for America’s relations with the wider world?

Emerging Economies, Disaster Risk Reduction, and South–South Cooperation: The Case of Mexico

The emerging economies differ from each other in various economic, political, and cultural ways, but hold a broad understanding and approach on key challenges of sustainable development, climate change mitigation, and disaster risk reduction (DRR). This approach contributes to advancing South–South cooperation (SSC). This article focuses on the approach of these economies to DRR, using the case of Mexico to examine this question. Mexico, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to natural disasters, has been applauded by leading international DRR figures for its commitment and practical response to DRR. The article explores this DRR response and what Mexico’s story has to offer to other countries in the context of SSC and its emerging role in international development cooperation (IDC). It argues that Mexico’s DRR story has many important positive aspects to contribute to SSC knowledge-sharing and IDC, but it also illustrates continuing challenges of financing, administration, and politics for emerging and developing economies alike.

Political Freedom, Governance, and Discursive Democracy

Ultimately, all of the foregoing issues of demography, environmental degradation, identity politics, economic change, and pandemic threats are bound up with perhaps the thorniest issue of all: political security. The foregoing analyses of these various issues have raised significant questions regarding the status and role of the state, competing interests, the processes of reconciliation, the degree and character of citizen recognition and participation, and the impact of processes of regionalism and globalisation transcending state boundaries. Critical security threats represent, in Habermas’ lexicon, pathologies of modernity. The systemic pathology of modernity is constituted as ‘an unbalanced development of its potential.’1

People, Migration, and Abuse

The size, growth rates, distribution and movements of people across Northeast Asia are inextricably entwined with the human insecurities associated with the exclusion, marginalisation and subordination of individuals and societal groups arising from population threats. Demographic factors emerge in a variety of forms as perceived sources of existential threat for the peoples of Northeast Asia and as legitimation challenges for the region’s states. Firstly, the most obvious apprehension relates to the absolute size and rates of growth of the region’s population. Unsurprisingly with its population of 1.3 billion, particular attention is paid in this regard to China. In this context, issues of population growth draw us into related considerations including national economic capacity; food and ‘basic needs’ provision; birth control policy and practices such as China’s controversial ‘one child’ policy; and issues of gender, reproductive rights and patriarchal social values, structures and practices. Secondly, concern is directed towards the distribution of population. In addition to the well-established rural–urban divide, interest is focused upon population concentrations in high-density urban ‘corridors’ such as the Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka ‘megalopolis’ or the coastal provincial and Pearl River delta corridors of China.

Floating in Hyper-Reality: The Global Republic Imagined

Much of the discussion in this study has been interested in a question of identity. In a key respect this is as much an existential question as it is one of politics and power. In other words, the problematic of identity is bound closely to the meaningfulness of existence for Americans and, indeed, for many non-Americans around the world. In particular, this question of meaningfulness is critical to the idea of American ‘personhood’ as represented in the hegemonic cultural identity in a condition of hybridity and in those oppositional discourses juxtaposed to, and experienced through, this cultural condition.