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Syncretism in the Hindu Right as Intentionally Incomplete Proximity Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Felix Pal
Religious syncretism can function as an instrument of inter-group control and domination. Rather than consistently promoting cross-religious forbearance and knowledge, syncretism enables a proximity that allows forms of violence otherwise inaccessible to religious majoritarian groups. By choreographing performances of syncretism between themselves and a subordinate religious community, organizations
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Developing Social Security Schemes for Small Island Economies: Lessons from Fiji's COVID-19 Experience Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Aruna Gounder
COVID-19 has triggered deep economic damage and devastated livelihoods to an extent never before experienced. It has revealed socio-economic vulnerabilities and so can be used as a learning platform in preparing for future shocks. In particular, it has exposed the vulnerability of households to sudden, severe, and prolonged income shock, the significance of social security as a shock response tool
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Indonesia's Promotion of UN Migrant Protection Norms in ASEAN Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Ruji Auethavornpipat,Wayne Palmer
Scholars have devoted insufficient attention to Indonesia's foreign policy on migrant worker protection, especially as mobilized in multilateral institutions. This article addresses such knowledge gaps by analyzing why Indonesia has, for almost two decades, persistently promoted the United Nations Migrant Worker Convention in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) despite constant pushback
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Feeling "Superstitious": Affect and the Land in the Marquesas Islands Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Emily C. Donaldson
For many Indigenous peoples, ancestral lands are a source of nourishment, strength, and sovereignty that counteracts colonial legacies of violence and hegemony. However, the feelings associated with place and the land can also be complicated by embodied fear and ambivalence. What happens when the remnants of colonialism feed feelings of ambivalence, shame, or fear of the land? How do these lasting
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Beyond Mall Christianity: Megachurches Navigating Southeast Asian Urbanism Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Terence Chong,Daniel P. S. Goh
The global spread of Pentecostalism has been facilitated by a combination of transnational impulses and indigenizing interests. In the case of independent Pentecostal megachurches, their growth in urban centres is reflected in both Western and Asian societies. Megachurches in America and Southeast Asia have flourished because of their unique blend of middle- class congregants, appeal to consumerist
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Life of a Nation's Text: The Travels and Travails of the Indian Constitution Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-12-01 Ronojoy Sen
This review essay briefly discusses Granville Austin's landmark study of the working of the Indian Constitution and its critics, reviews three recent books on that Constitution, and evaluates the extent to which these new works have been able to take constitutional studies in new directions. All three books shine a light on the critical role of the Constitution and the courts in Indian democracy. While
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Understanding Election Violence in the Philippines: Beware the Unknown Assassins of May Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-09-01 Tom Smith,Joseph Anthony L. Reyes
Despite election violence being a commonly agreed upon phenomena in the Philippines, there has been a dearth in academic research on the topic in recent years, largely due to a lack of reliable information. To address this, our article adapts recognized methods from studies such as Lindsay Shorr Newman's 2013 paper, together with Stephen McGrath and Paul Gill's 2014 research on terrorism and elections
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Network Monarchy as Euphoric Couplet Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-09-01 Duncan McCargo
Since the publication of my article "Network monarchy and crises of legitimacy in Thailand" (Pacific Review, 2005), network monarchy has become an influential concept in the analysis of Thailand's politics. Though widely adopted, the argument has also spawned rival or complementary coinings, ranging from "autonomous political networks" (Joseph Harris) to "working towards the monarchy" (Serhat Uenaldi)
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The Politics of Claim-Making in India Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-09-01 Diego Maiorano
How do Indian citizens access the state? While a standard answer would be "through patronage," three recent books show that clientelism, while important, is just part of the story. Not just passive clients at the mercy of their political patrons, Indian citizens actively engage the state and their representatives to make claims and secure what is due to them. Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner's Claiming the State—Active
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The Political Orientation of Japanese Online Right-wingers Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Kikuko Nagayoshi
Since the early 2000s, Japan has witnessed the growing salience of so-called netto uyoku (online right-wingers). This group is characterized by strong anti-China and anti-Korea sentiments, nationalistic political views, and online political engagement. While online radical right movements in Europe are often regarded as support bases for radical right candidates or parties, few studies have investigated
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Discombobulated Actor-Networks in a Maritime Resource Frontier Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Colin Filer,Jennifer Gabriel,Matthew G. Allen
Papua New Guinea’s first deep-sea mining project, once touted as the first of its kind in the world, now appears to be “dead in the water.” The mining company behind it has been liquidated, the mining equipment has been rendered obsolete, and the host government has been made to look foolish for supporting the enterprise. This paper examines the application of two concepts—that of the “resource frontier”
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Introduction: The New Scramble for the Pacific: A Frontier Approach Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Elodie Fache,Pierre-Yves Le Meur,Estienne Rodary
Over the last decades, the Pacific Ocean has been the locus of an unequalled rush for space and resources involving intertwined public and corporate interests, external powers, and Pacific Island states and territories. This rush is driven by three intersecting motivations aiming to: (1) exploit marine resources; (2) protect marine biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change; and (3) establish
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The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary: Terraqueous Territorialization and Māori Marine Environments Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Fiona McCormack
This paper interprets the disrupted establishment of the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, a 620,000 square kilometre marine protection area, as a crucial moment in Pacific frontier making. The development of large-scale protected marine areas is a politically charged frontier tool, in which states garner international recognition and environmental renown by setting aside large swathes of their exclusive economic
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Floating Islands, Frontiers, and Other Boundary Objects on the Edge of Oceania’s Futurity Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Alexander Mawyer
Technological advances have challenged numerous social and political domains over recent decades, including the materialities and imaginaries of islands and islandness in Oceania. Since the early 2000s, a plurality of schemes, discourses, politics, anxieties, and hopes have coalesced around the possible construction of artificial islands, referred to as floating islands, floating nations, floating
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Candidate Selection Reform in South Korea: The Persistence of Exclusive Practices Despite Inclusive Rules Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-12-01 Eun Hee Woo
This paper analyzes how democratization has affected the dynamics of candidate selection in South Korea. After democratization in the late 1980s, it was expected that intra-party democracy would follow. In response to increasing public demand, the major parties adopted primary systems in the early 2000s. Nonetheless, most candidates for the legislature are still nominated by a small number of central
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Singapore's Pandemic Election: Opposition Parties and Valence Politics in GE2020 Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-12-01 Steven Oliver, Kai Ostwald
Singapore’s 2020 general election was held amidst the most serious public health and economic crises in the country’s history Despite expectations that these parallel crises would precipitate a flight to safety and result in a strong performance by the dominant People’s Action Party (PAP), the ruling party received its third-lowest popular vote share (61 2 percent) and lowest-ever seat share (89 2
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Migrants, Minorities, and Populism in Southeast Asia Thomas Pepinsky Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Thomas Pepinsky
Populists in Southeast Asia generally refrain from invoking anti-migrant and anti-minority sentiments as part of their mobilizational strategies. This differentiates them from "exclusionary" populists in Europe, even though many Southeast Asian countries are diverse societies with long histories of migration and ethnic chauvinism. Because the categories of peoplehood that were set alongside the onset
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Repeated Multiparty Elections in Cambodia: Intensifying Authoritarianism Yet Benefiting the Masses Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Sivhuoch Ou
The United Nations (UN) introduced multiparty elections to Cambodia in 1993 in the hope of bringing about democracy in that country. Ironically, the two-and-a-half decades of uninterrupted elections have led to an ever-more authoritarian government under Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Authoritarianism under the single-dominant party system began in 1997, but has intensified
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Japan's Changing Regional World of Welfare: Agricultural Reform, Hamlet-based Collective Farming, and the Local Renegotiation of Social Risks Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-06-01 Hanno Jentzsch
This article analyzes agricultural reform as an element of broader shifts in the Japanese welfare regime. In postwar Japan, agricultural support and protection served as a "functional equivalent" to welfare provision in rural and semi-rural areas. However, an ongoing agricultural reform process has put pressure on aging smallholders and on JA, the powerful organization of agricultural cooperatives
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From Employment Security to Managerial Precarity: Japan's Changing Welfare-Work Nexus and its Impacts on Mid-career Workers Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-06-01 Nana Okura Gagné
In the postwar period, Japanese workers came to symbolize the economic and cultural prosperity of Japan. In return for their hard work, they were rewarded with life-time employment and various fringe benefits. This postwar social contract of "corporate welfarism" minimized the social risks and personal career uncertainties of a fluid labour market. However, nearly 30 years of economic recession and
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Civil Society and Labour Rights Protection in Asia and the Pacific Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Dongwook Kim,Chonghyun Choi
Why do some national governments in Asia and the Pacific protect labour rights better in practice than others? This article argues that labour rights are better protected in Asia-Pacific countries where civil society organizations participate more intensively in the government's policy-making process. It goes beyond treating regime type in the aggregate and demonstrates that the associational dimension
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The Limits of the Multiple Institutionalization of Border Control: A Case Study of Immigration, Customs, and the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency in Batam, Indonesia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Cornelis Lay,Azifah R. Astrina
This article explores the limits of the multiple institutionalization of border control within the context of the Singapore-Johor-Riau Islands (SIJORI) interregional border, providing a detailed examination of three border control institutions, i.e. immigration, customs, and the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (BAKAMLA: Badan Keamanan Laut Republik Indonesia) in Batam, Riau Islands Province, Indonesia
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Inequality and Democratic Support in Indonesia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Burhanuddin Muhtadi,Eve Warburton
Indonesia is a country of significant inequalities, but we know little about how Indonesians feel about the gap between rich and poor. Comparative research suggests that negative perceptions of inequality can erode public support for democratic institutions. Using survey data, we explore the relationship between inequality and support for democracy in Indonesia. We find Indonesians are divided in their
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The Return of Sophisticated Maritime Piracy to Southeast Asia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Justin V. Hastings
What explains the recent (perhaps temporary) resurgence of sophisticated maritime pirate attacks in Southeast Asia in the face of strong regional counter-piracy efforts? Given Southeast Asian countries' relatively well-functioning institutions, political, economic, and conflict-related explanations for the return of piracy are incomplete. As an innovative extension to structural arguments on piracy
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Revisiting the Concept of Political Participation in the Pacific Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Kerryn Baker,Julien Barbara
Understanding how citizens participate in politics is important because it shapes political culture and the tenor of democracy. The standard research framing of Pacific politics, centring around institutions both formal and informal, fails to fully account for the myriad of ways in which non-elite Pacific Islanders experience and relate to politics in their daily lives. This scholarly approach results
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Internationalization in Ronald Dore's Changing Approach to Japan Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 David Leheny
Ronald Dore's 1979 essay about Japan's "internationalization" tackled one of the defining themes of Japanese politics, society, and culture over the past decades. In his characteristically witty voice, Dore assessed the myriad ways in which a Japan that was well attuned to global cultures was also capable of reaffirming supposed chasms between Japanese society and the world outside, particularly in
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Development, Discernment, and Death: Dore on the South Korean Economy Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 Hyung-Gu Lynn
Ronald Dore's 1977 article in Pacific Affairs, "South Korean Development in Wider Perspective," is a rare example of the scholar known for his writings on Japan applying his analytical lens on South Korea. What were some of this article's most notable areas of foresight and elision related to development studies? This essay answers this question by interpreting connections to publications before and
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The Work of Ronald P. Dore and Pacific Affairs Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 Apichai W. Shipper
This introductory essay discusses Ronald Dore's academic career and contributions. As an "accidental Japanologist," Dore made enormous contributions to the understanding of Japanese society. As a sociologist, he rigorously employed a sociological approach to the study of comparative political economy with profound moral-philosophical reflections. By doing so, he helped to correct our misunderstanding
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Assumptions and Distortions: Dore on Equality in Japanese Schooling Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 Merry White
Ronald Dore's work on education in Japan centred on themes of selection and equality. In his work on Tokugawa education, Dore presaged some of the emphasis he gave in his later work on quality and social and moral content in modern education. The argument of The Diploma Disease concerned the "late development effect" as a tool in understanding the emphasis on qualification and selection that led to
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Southeast Asian Regionalism and Global Capitalism Revisited Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Paul Bowles
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From Trade to Investment: ASEAN and AFTA in the Era of the "New Regionalism" Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Jürgen Rüland
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Many Votes, Little Voice: Indonesia's 2019 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Olle Törnquist
The recent Indonesian elections signalled relative stability in spite of the rise of contentious politics. To explain this, the article first discusses the way the incumbent Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration has handled the rise of Muslim populism sponsored by his political opponents. This has included a reliance on illiberal measures, the political adjustment and “triangulation” of his policies
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Thailand's 2019 Vote: The General's Election Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Jacob I. Ricks
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ASEAN and AFTA: Slow but Steady Progress through Managed Evolution Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Richard Stubbs
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Asian Regionalism: Not so New, Not so Effective Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Mark Beeson
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Japan's Agenda Setting to Lower the Voting Age from 20 to 18: Prioritizing Constitutional Revision over Democratic Legitimacy Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Yasuo Takao
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Proud to be Thai: The Puzzling Absence of Ethnicity-Based Political Cleavages in Northeastern Thailand Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 Jacob I. Ricks
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The Dream of ASEAN Connectivity: Imagining Infrastructure in Southeast Asia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 Anna Fünfgeld
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Democratic Decline in Indonesia: The Role of Religious Authorities Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 Saskia Schäfer
The Council of Indonesian Islamic Scholars (MUI) has exerted increased political influence in Indonesian politics since the fall of Suharto. Constituted by representatives from various Muslim civil society organizations, the council was originally intended by Suharto to serve as a political representative for Indonesia’s two largest civil society organizations, the Muhammadiyah and the Nahdlatul Ulama
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School-Community Relations and Fee-Free Education Policy in Papua New Guinea Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-03-01 Grant W. Walton,Tara Davda
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Elite Opinion and the "Belt and Road" Debate in South Korea Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2019-03-01 David Hundt,Sooyoung Kim
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Producing the Self-Regulating Subject: Liberal Protection in Indonesia's Migration Infrastructure Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-12-01 Andy Scott Chang
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Introduction: Practices of Brokerage and the Making of Migration Infrastructures in Asia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-12-01 Tina Shrestha,Brenda S.A. Yeoh
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Aspirational Infrastructure: Everyday Brokerage and the Foreign-Employment Recruitment Agencies in Nepal Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-12-01 Tina Shrestha
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Postscript: Infrastructuralization: Evolving Sociopolitical Dynamics in Labour Migration from Asia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-12-01 Biao Xiang,Johan Lindquist
This article explores the trend of “infrastructuralization” in state- sponsored programs of low- and semi-skilled labour migration from Asia. These programs increasingly focus on facilitating migra ...
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Education as Early Stage Brokerage: Cooling Out Aspiring Migrants for the Global Hotel Industry Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-12-01 Yasmin Y. Ortiga
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Mediations of Care: Brokering Labour in the Age of Robotics Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-12-01 Anna Romina Guevarra
Developments in the field of social robotics have increasingly played with the boundaries between human and machine, using remote or tele-presence technological innovations as a way to mediate or revolutionize humanmachine interactions. This paper explores one such development, namely the roboticization of care labour in the realm of education, and the ways in which it brokers relationships between
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Rice Imports and Electoral Proximity: The Philippines and Indonesia Compared Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-09-01 Jamie S. Davidson
Abstract This article attempts to explain why the pattern of rice imports in Indonesia and the Philippines, two countries that share many similarities, differ as their respective presidential elections approach: rice imports tend to increase in the Philippines yet fall in Indonesia. The mainstream agricultural political economy literature can only help provide partial answers because it overly stresses
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Of Disputed Borders, Armed Conflict, Periodic Crises, and Regional Rivalry: The Past and the Future of Sino-Indian Relations Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-09-01 Sumit Ganguly
AbstractThese four books on Sino-Indian relations provide new evidence and novel arguments about the origins of the border dispute, the Sino-Indian border war of 1962, and the evolution of the Sino-Indian rivalry. Three of the four books have made use of newly declassified archival material and have thereby challenged existing knowledge about various features of this contentious relationship. The books
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The Mutual Constitution of the Abductions and North Korean Human Rights Issues in Japan and Internationally Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-09-01 Celeste L. Arrington
Abstract The abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s figure prominently in Japanese conceptions of the North Korean human rights issue. In the past decade, global discussions about North Korean human rights have also come to include these abductions, the final report of the UN Commission of Inquiry in 2014 being a prime example. How did the abductions and North
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Christian Case for Engaging North Korea Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-09-01 Joseph Yi,Joe Phillips
AbstractThe Trump Administration’s strategy to isolate North Korea includes a ban on Americans travelling there. The 2017 ban especially impacts nearly seventy Christian faith-based organizations (FBOs), which in the past two decades legally channelled hundreds of (mostly volunteer) workers and thousands of tourists to North Korea. Since the travel restriction, these faith-based workers and tourists
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Balancing Between Legality and Illegality: Russian Import of Japanese Used Cars and Unauthorized Export of Russian Marine Bioresources to Japan Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-09-01 Serghei Golunov
This article focuses on two main issues: the ability of informal cross-border entrepreneurs to avoid restrictions imposed by a government, and governmental capacity to make these restrictions work efficiently in the long term. Two kinds of informal trade activities between Russia and Japan—import of used cars and trafficking of marine bioresources—are taken as case studies. I argue that in both cases
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Fighting Illiberalism with Illiberalism: Islamist Populism and Democratic Deconsolidation in Indonesia Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-06-01 Marcus Mietzner
The global rise of populist campaigns against democratic governments has revived the long-standing scholarly debate on how democracies can best defend themselves against anti-democratic challenges. While some view an aggressive militant democracy approach as the most effective option, others propose accommodation of populist actors and voters. Others again suggest a merging of the two paradigms. This
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State Processes, Ideas, and Institutional Change: The Case of the Right to Information Act in India1 Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-06-01 Himanshu Jha
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Social Capital Configuration Variation and the Contemporary Transformation of Rural Vietnam1 Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-06-01 Hy V. Luong
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Modi’s China Policy and the Road to Confrontation Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2018-06-01 Kanti Bajpai
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Phnom Penh's NagaWorld Resort and Casino Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2017-12-01 Teri Shaffer Yamada
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"We as Peoples Have the Right to Exist": Threatened Nations and Climate Justice Pacific Affairs (IF 1.372) Pub Date : 2017-12-01 Milla Emilia Vaha
Climate change currently affects several states and their citizens around the globe. As sea-level-rise is threatening to make some states completely uninhabitable, small island states serve as examples of states at the greatest risk. This review essay analyzes three recent contributions to the literature on climate change and the future of endangered populations. These books offer timely contributions