Regionalization of higher education and geopolitics in Northeast Asia

This article examines the relationship among three Northeast Asian countries (China, Japan, South Korea), in terms of intra-regional collaboration and exchange in higher education. It highlights how geopolitical conflicts have continuously posed barriers to a more substantial regionalization of higher education, despite continuous efforts since the early 2000s. Rekindled historical conflicts, lack of regional leadership, lingering US influence and ultimately the outbreak of COVID-19 have further exacerbated uncertainty for regionalization of higher education in Northeast Asia. Collaborative efforts among the three countries to ease age-old geopolitical tensions, will be a prerequisite to achieving more substantial higher education regionalization in Northeast Asia. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regionalization of higher education and geopolitics in Northeast Asia11This article is based on Byun and Um (2012). However, many parts of this article were updated and rewritten mainly by Bawool Hong in order to reflect the developments since 2012, when the manuscript was originally published

This article examines the relationship among three Northeast Asian countries (China, Japan, South Korea), in terms of intra-regional collaboration and exchange in higher education. It highlights how geopolitical conflicts have continuously posed barriers to a more substantial regionalization of higher education, despite continuous efforts since the early 2000s. Rekindled historical conflicts, lack of regional leadership, lingering US influence and ultimately the outbreak of COVID-19 have further exacerbated uncertainty for regionalization of higher education in Northeast Asia. Collaborative efforts among the three countries to ease age-old geopolitical tensions, will be a prerequisite to achieving more substantial higher education regionalization in Northeast Asia.

Editorial: Logistics connectivity in East Asia: practices and challenges

In Tomoya Kawasaki, Takuma Matsuda, Yui-yip Lau and Xiaowen Fu (The durability of economic indicators in container shipping demand: a case study of East Asia–US container transport), the durability of economic indicators on container movements from East Asia to the USA are identified by a vector autoregression model using monthly-based time-series data. Takuma Matsuda, Enna Hirata and Tomoya Kawasaki aim to contribute to the empirical literature on the container shipping industry market structure (Monopoly in the container shipping market: an econometric approach). Phong Nha Nguyen and Hwayoung Kim aim to identify the characteristics of the maritime shipping network in Northeast Asia as well as compare the level of port connectivity among these container ports in the region (Analyzing the international connectivity of the major container ports in Northeast Asia).

Post-democratizing Politics in Southeast and Northeast Asia

A growing global trend towards authoritarianism has left democracy, especially its liberal form, under strain. This has occurred despite earlier promises of democratization between the end of the Cold War and the early twenty-first century. Our essay examines how the dynamics of post-democratization politics have played out across several polities in Southeast and Northeast Asia. These regions once included supposed "third wave" democracies and polities apparently on the cusp of political liberalization. Such expectations have not panned out. Instead, the region has generally witnessed either significant authoritarian resilience or autocratic resurgence following spurts of political openness. We examine how such autocratic dynamics have played out following earlier movements toward democratization. Specifically, we identify three key elements of postdemocratization politics associated with autocratic success and democratic robustness based on contributions to this special issue, and suggest pathways through which they can affect political outcomes. Dominant beliefs can prime accommodation with authoritarianism given pervasive acceptance of state-driven ideologies while identification with liberal values can drive democratic consolidation and resistance to autocracy, regardless of wealth and education. Ostensibly democratic institutions, such as constitutional courts, can become anti-democratic instruments when the exercise of their independent prerogatives means upholding autocratic tendencies that align with their interests and outlooks. Agents and their decisions can both prompt and stymie autocratization, whether intentionally or inadvertently;strategies to consolidate authority can fracture even dominant ruling coalitions. Examining the role ideas, institutions, and agents play in post-democratic politics can further efforts at understanding the current authoritarian wave and its limits.

Analyzing the international connectivity of the major container ports in Northeast Asia

Purpose: This study aims to identify the characteristics of the maritime shipping network in Northeast Asia as well as compare the level of port connectivity among these container ports in the region. In addition, this study analyses the change in role and position of 20 ports in the region by clustering these ports based on connectivity index and container throughput and route index. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs Social Network Analysis (SNA) to delineate the international connectivity of major container ports in Northeast Asia. Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to identify each port's connectivity index and container throughput index, and the resulting indexes are employed as the basis to cluster 20 major ports by fuzzy C-mean (FCM). Findings: The results revealed that Northeast Asia is a highly connected maritime shipping network with the domination of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Busan. Furthermore, both container throughput and connectivity in almost all container ports in the region have decreased significantly due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The rapid growth of Shenzhen and Ningbo has allowed them to join Cluster 1 with Shanghai while maintaining high connectivity, yet decreasing container throughput has pushed Busan down to Cluster 2. Originality/value: The originality of this study is to combine indexes of SNA into connectivity index reflecting characteristics of the maritime shipping network in Northeast Asia and categorize 20 major ports by FCM. © 2022, Pacific Star Group Education Foundation.

A Shifting Northeast Asian Security Landscape and China-ROK-Japan Arctic Cooperation

The growing competition between Beijing and Washington and the coronavirus pandemic are not only changing the regional landscape but also China-ROK-Japan cooperation in arctic affairs. For the three countries, changes in the Northeast Asian landscape present both opportunities and challenges for trilateral exchange and cooperation. China, South Korea, and Japan all depend on international trade, shipping, and energy for their sustained economic growth. As extra-regional actors with major interests in arctic affairs, China-ROK-Japan share similar policy positions as observers on the Arctic Council. At the same time, the three economic powers also have inescapable competing views and conflicts of interest in the arctic region. Amid a shifting global landscape and the coronavirus pandemic, Northeast Asia is also undergoing profound changes, which requires higher levels of trilateral cooperation in arctic affairs to provide further momentum for maintaining regional stability and harmony. The best policy for China, South Korea, and Japan, three interdependent major economies in a world of growing uncertainty and competition is more coordination and cooperation. The Arctic could be a region where higher levels of Northeast Asian cooperation and integration can set a new paradigm of sub-regional coordination in the service of regional stability and prosperity.

An observation-based adjustment method of regional contribution estimation from upwind emissions to downwind PM2.5 concentrations.

We propose a method to adjust contributions from upwind emissions to downwind PM2.5 concentrations to account for the differences between observed and simulated PM2.5 concentrations in an upwind area. Emissions inventories (EI) typically have a time lag between the inventory year and the release year. In addition, traditional emission control policies and social issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic cause steady or unexpected changes in anthropogenic emissions. These uncertainties could result in overestimation of the emission impacts of upwind areas on downwind areas if emissions used in modeling for the upwind areas were larger than the reality. In this study, South Korea was defined as the downwind area while other regions in Northeast Asia including China were defined as the upwind areas to evaluate applicability of the proposed adjustment method. We estimated the contribution of emissions released from the upwind areas to PM2.5 concentrations in South Korea from 2015 to 2020 using a three-dimensional photochemical model with two EIs. In these two simulations for 2015-2020, the annual mean foreign contributions differed by 4.1-5.5 µg/m3. However, after adjustment, the differences decreased to 0.4-1.1 µg/m3. The adjusted annual mean foreign contributions were 12.7 and 8.8 µg/m3 during 2015-2017 and 2018-2020, respectively. Finally, we applied the adjustment method to the COVID-19 pandemic period to evaluate the applicability for short-term episodes. The foreign contribution of PM2.5 during the lockdown period in China decreased by 30% after adjustment and the PM2.5 normalized mean bias in South Korea improved from 15% to -4%. This result suggests that the upwind contribution adjustment can be used to alleviate the uncertainty of the emissions inventory used in air quality simulations. We believe that the proposed upwind contribution adjustment method can help to correctly understand the contributions of local and upwind emissions to PM2.5 concentrations in downwind areas.