The effect of regions on international
politics became more apparent with the end of the Cold War. Conflict and
cooperation still engage major powers, but regions must be treated on their
own terms. The spiilover effects of events in the Middle East, sub-Saharan
Africa, and Northeast Asia dominate headlines around the globe.
The IGCC
project "Reconceptualizing
Regional Relations," directed by David A. Lake
(IGCC) and Patrick Morgan (UC Irvine) helped to set a new course
for IGCC's regional analyses. IGCC continues its work on regional relations
through its track two dialogues in the Middle East and Northeast
Asia. Below is a sampling of recent IGCC projects by region, with
links to more in-depth discussion and IGCC-related publications.
IGCC has since its inception recognized the importance and relevance
of the Asia-Pacific region to emerging global geopolitics. A decade ago,
Miles Kahler and
colleagues considered "Issues Beyond the Cold War in the Pacific." By 1993,
Susan Shirk
launched unique, meaningful unofficial discussion among China, Japan,
Russia, the United States, and both South and North Korea, in the Northeast
Asia
Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) to enhance mutual understanding, confidence,
and cooperation while reducing mistrust within the region. Wired For
Peace: Virtual Diplomacy in Northeast Asia, used computer networks to sustain
this communication, share information, and offer a timely mechanism
for collaborative
analysis among NEACD participants.
In 1997, IGCC launched "China and its Provinces: The Impact of China's Opening
on its Economic and Political Integration" to assess how China's opening
to foreign trade and overseas investment effected national integration
and central control in China.
More recent work examines international
environmental
commitments and extends into the realm of economic and security issues.
The
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is an ambitious first
effort to build a regional, multilateral institution that pulls together
the nations
of the Asia Pacific. The APEC International Assessment Network enhance
knowledge among government officials and the general public in order
improve APEC performance.
Until a decade ago, from the IGCC perspective Europe naturally remained
at the core of "the East-West divide." Now, European integration, security
relations within and among the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) states, and
the transformation of Eastern and Central European economies command
new attention at the nexus of economics and security.
In this light, IGCC membership in the Partnership for Peace Consortium
of Defense Academics and Security Studies Institutes opens new
opportunities for research contracts, such as the working group on
crisis management
in Southeast Europe attended by Prof. Ellen Comisso (University of
California, San Diego).
Since the mid 1990s, IGCC has represented American
international relations and international
security interests in online standards development through membership
in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's International
Relations and Security Network (ISN) and the ISN—Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Facts on International Relations and
Security Trends (FIRST) federated database
initiative.
In 1997, IGCC and the UCSD Center for Iberian and Latin American
Studies (CILAS) co-sponsored "Regional Integration in the Americas and
the Pacific
Rim." This
project assessed the compatibility among NAFTA, APEC, and the envisioned
Free Trade Area
of the Americas, and in particular, whether these plans will create
hostile trading blocs or promote globalization.
In 1998, IGCC Washington
co-hosted
the "Santiago
Summit of the Americas: A First-Hand Report" with the Institute
for International Economics (IIE) and the North-South Center of the University
of Miami.
Prof. Richard Feinberg, Director of the UCSD
APEC Center,
presented his first-hand impressions and analysis of the summit
to
a prominent Washington, D.C. audience.
In addition, IGCC seeks
to promote research that
emphasizes the politically explosive nature of migration
and immigration, and
the relatively thin nature of international institutions in
this area.
The Middle East peace process is in flux. What once seemed the nearly
inevitable "working
out" of a decades-long conflict is now seen more clearly as a contingent
unfolding set of events that could drive the region in more than one direction,
including
toward explicit conflict and even war. This presents unique theoretical,
analytic, and policy opportunities. Currently, two complementary track
two projects are examining
ongoing peace processes and deriving concrete cooperation policy practices
to sustain them. "Arms Control and Security Improvements in the Middle
East" is a series of dialogues for military professionals, while the "Mideast
Regional Security and Cooperation" dialogues are for government and civil
society leaders.
With the ongoing crisis in Darfur as its backdrop, a recent workshop at
UCLA offered a timely platform for China and Africa scholars to explore the
complex nature of China’s renewed engagement in sub-Saharan Africa.
The April 2007 "Rethinking Africa’s ‘China Factor’:
Identifying Players, Strategies, and Practices" was organized by the
Globalization Research Center-Africa (GRCA) in collaboration with the UCLA
Center for Chinese Studies and IGCC. Link
to the workshop web page.
IGCC is actively seeking funding for the U.S.–China Dialogue on Africa,
a track two dialogue between the United States and China on Africa’s
economic and security issues, beginning with the crisis in Darfur.
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