Long Peace of East Asia

Citation for published version: Kivimaki, T 2014, The Long Peace of East Asia. Routledge. Publication date: 2014 Document Version Early version, also known as pre-print Link to publication Publisher Rights Unspecified University of Bath Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 The Long Peace of East Asia Timo Kivimäki University of Helsinki, Department of Political and Economic Studies Ashgate Contents 1. Aim, concepts and approach Objectives Security and peace East Asia as a region to be focused on A pragmatist research program Quantitative and qualitative evidence on peace and war in East Asia. Structure of the book 2. The phenomenon to be explained: The long peace of East Asia Introduction Battle deaths and the long peace of East Asia The short peace of East Asia Battle deaths of other types of political violence Authoritarian violence Non-state violence Homicide Beyond battle deaths Indirect conflict-related fatalities Conflicts without fatalities Reign of fear Negative peace The beginning of the long peace of East Asia Profile of the peace Conclusion 3. The main argument: the contribution of the ASEAN Way to the long peace of East Asia Introduction The ASEAN Way East Asia and the ASEAN Way Consequences of the ASEAN Way in ASEAN and in East Asia Conclusions 4. Developmentalism and the prevention of the onset of conflicts Introduction Previous work Developmentalism The classification of East Asian regimes and the degree of commitment to development Regimes with lacking commitment to development (1) Regimes with intermediate commitment to development (2) Pure developmentalists (3) Developmentalism in East Asia War, peace and commitment to development in East Asia Conclusions 5. Non-intervention and the prevention of the escalation of conflicts into wars. Introduction Big powers and the long peace of East Asia Periods of global power politics Association between global power and peace in East Asia The definition and operationalization of military interference Association between military interference and battle deaths Mechanism of the contribution of interference to battle deaths Association between non-interference and peace 6. Face saving and the termination of conflicts. Introduction Disappearance of victories Disappearance of peace negotiation 7. Generation of the successful ASEAN/Chinese approach Introduction Origin of the ASEAN Way in Southeast Asia The Malaysian Confrontation The genesis of the ASEAN Generation of success in the ASEAN Way China and the Spread of the ASEAN Way to the Rest of East Asia Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and China’s Transition to Developmentalism China’s adoption of the non-interference principle Difficulties in the creation of a legitimate approach of non-interference Sources of legitimacy for the respect for non- interference norm and sovereignty From Revolutionary Victory to Face Saving and Dignity for All 8. Will the long peace survive? How could it be made broader, positive and more sustainable? Will the long peace of East Asia last? Will the long peace of East Asia fall as did the short peace of East Asia? Are democracy and prosperity threats to the long peace? Way ahead 9. What can the East Asian experience offer to theories of international relations, peace and conflicts? The exception of the long peace of East Asia: a challenge to the theory of peace and war Exceptions to the pattern of the long peace of East Asia Conclusions Bibliography Preface In 2001 I published an article on the “Long Peace of ASEAN” in the Journal of Peace Research. I focused on the fact that despite endless discussions on the problems of Southeast Asian conflict-resolution capacity, the lack of regional pooling of sovereignty, the weakness of crisis management institutions, etc., the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have so far remained very peaceful. I noted that many of the Europe/West-centric approaches to security and conflict failed to explain the relative peace of East Asia. The fact that one does not recognize the characteristics that were associated to peace of Western Europe does not mean that Southeast Asia could not be peaceful. Southeast Asia did not have many wars and its conflicts tended to be much less intensive in the area of the ASEAN, even if the Southeast Asian approach to peace does not correspond to the approach of Western Europe, which has become the “default approach” to peace in the literature of international relations theory and peace and conflict studies. Over the years I have developed my ideas on the reasons for the relative peace in Southeast Asia. I also came to realize that even if pacification of Northeast Asia, including China has taken place with a slightly different timetable, the recipes are rather similar to the ones found in Southeast Asia. It seems that the entire East Asia defies many of the assumptions regarding to the “causes of peace”. This is why I thought that studying the recipes of peace in East Asia could be interesting not only for the sake of understanding of East Asia, but for the enrichment of the theory of international relations and the study of peace and conflicts. For me the project to understand the Long Peace of East Asia proved that I was right: East Asian experience can emancipate us from many of the Europe-centric biases of our thinking of peace. At the same time it gives many new tools to the toolbox of peacemaking. I hope that this book convinces the reader of this. I owe a great debt to many people who were helpful to my research. I have been impressed and influenced by the great names of East Asian studies, who have also commented and/or encouraged my work. Amitav Acharya, Robert Ross, Surpong Peou, David Kang, Kevin Clements, Chung-in Moon, Jong Kun Choi, Keyuan Zou, Emilian Kavalski, Zhang Tiejun and Kim Beng Phar deserve my deepest gratitude. Furthermore, I would like to thank some great international relations theorists and peace-and conflict scholars, foremost Heikki Patomäki, Ole Waever, Liisa Laakso, Teivo Teivainen, Raimo Väyrynen, Peter Wallensteen, Matilda Lindgren, Isak Svensson and Erik Melander, for their help, encouragement and constructive criticism during the process of research for this book. Academic and practical specialists of particular conflict situations also helped me with their special insights to some of the problems that I had to deal with in this research project. Djohermansyah Djohan, Delsy Ronnie, Saifuddin Bantasyam, Santos Winarso and Geir Helgesen among a number of others deserve my special thanks. I am very grateful for my current employer, Department of Political and Economic Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki for the encouragement, academic freedom and facilitation of my writing process at the very end of the writing. The administrative framework and scholarly atmosphere have been positive and encouraging. To some extent it has returned my faith in academic institutions as allies, rather than enemies of scholarly innovation. I would like to thank my language editor, Leena Höskuldsson, who did a great service to my readers in straightening out not only my language but often also my thoughts related to the difficult issues of peace and war. Thanks are also due to the great editorial team of Ashgate. This is the third singe-authored book I have written with Ashgate; if it is up to me, it will not be the last. Chapter 1 Aim, Concepts and Approach Objectives East Asia has become peaceful without scholars generally even realizing this. When recipes for peace are sought, we often look at Western-European experiences of integration, lower borders and turning of historical enemies into friends. However, the long peace period in Western Europe is not unique: similar periods have also been experienced elsewhere, but these have not portrayed strongly in the creation of generalizations on peace. Instead, Europe has largely dominated the field. However, during the past three decades, East Asia has been more peaceful than Europe, Americas or any continent, in terms of the numbers of battle deaths per capita. Like Europe, East Asia used to be the most belligerent area in the world, just before its dramatic change. Since East Asia is a spectacular case of pacification, and since it has not much affected our theorization of peace and conflict, it is a very useful case to study. Perhaps peace in East Asia can be sustained? Perhaps it can be deepened? Perhaps the East Asian peace model can be emulated elsewhere? The present book starts from the pragmatic interest of peace research as a tool of reducing suffering caused by war. Its ultimate objective is to contribute to the reduction of the number of people killed by conflicts and political violence by offering understanding that can help remove causes of war, criticize the knowledge that constitutes the legitimate forms of violence, deconstruct social realities within which war is a rational strategy, and construct interpretations and social realities that help create peace. Later in this chapter, I shall explain the general approach of neo-pragmatist study of the long peace of East Asia and its contribution to the current understanding of East Asian security. Furthermore, I shall substantiate my arguments on the long peace of East Asia.

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