Japan, FOIP and the geopolitics of energy in the Indo-Pacific (original) (raw)
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FOIP 2.0: The Evolution of Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy
Asia-Pacific Review, 2019
The “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) is the most important feature of Japan’s foreign policy under the Abe Administration. One of the most important questions is whether this vision aims to contain a rapidly rising China. Along with the amelioration of the relationship between Japan and China, this diplomatic strategy has been evolved from the quadrilateral security cooperation among leading democracies in this region, namely the US, Japan, Australia, and India, to a more comprehensive regional cooperation. This article regards the latter diplomatic strategic as the “FOIP 2.0” and that there emerges a possible harmony between Japan’s FOIP and China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Japan's Quest For Energy Security: Risks and Opportunities in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape
Frankfurt Working Papers on East Asia, 2011
For much of the 20th century, economic growth was fueled by cheap oil-based energy supply. Due to increasing resource constraints, however, the political and strategic importance of oil has become a significant part of energy and foreign policy making in East and Southeast Asian countries. In Japan, the rise of China’s economic and military power is a source of considerable concern. To enhance energy security, the Japanese government has recently amended its energy regulatory framework, which reveals high political awareness of risks resulting from the looming key resources shortage and competition over access. An essential understanding that national energy security is a politically and economically sensitive area with a clear international dimension affecting everyday life is critical in shaping a nation’s energy future.
2011
For much of the 20th century, economic growth was fueled by cheap oil-based energy supply. Due to increasing resource constraints, however, the political and strategic importance of oil has become a significant part of energy and foreign policy making in East and Southeast Asian countries. In Japan, the rise of China’s economic and military power is a source of considerable concern. To enhance energy security, the Japanese government has amended its energy regulatory framework, which reveals high political awareness of risks resulting from the looming key resources shortage and competition over access. An essential understanding that national energy security is a politically and economically sensitive area with a clear international dimension affecting everyday life is critical in shaping Japan’s energy future. The direction of the country’s nuclear future after the 11 March 2011 triple disaster including the malfunctioning of the Fukushima nuclear power plant is still unclear.
China’s Global Search for Energy Security Cooperation and Competition in Asia-Pacific
China has adopted a state-centered approach towards energy security to deepen political and commercial relationships with all energy producing nations and to aggressively invest in oil fields and pipelines around the world. Applying this approach to its relations with its Asia -Pacific neighbors has produced mixed results. While China's energy diplomacy has brought about opportunities for cooperation with some of its neighbors, notably some countries in Central Asia and continental Southeast Asia, it has become a source of conflict with some other neighbors, especially those with border disputes over maritime territories which may have rich natural resources. This paper examines China's state-led search for energy security and its implications for China's relations with Asia -Pacific countries.
Energy, Trade and Geopolitics in Asia: The implications for Canada
School of Public Policy Briefing Paper, University of Calgary, 2018
Canada’s growing interest in trade with countries in the Indo-Pacific region corresponds with an ominous growth in geopolitical instability and insecurity in that part of the globe. With Indo-Pacific hunger for oil expected to soar – especially in China, where demand will translate to 80 per cent of imports in 10 years – Canada needs to develop policies to deal with the region’s turbulent realities.
Policy Paper 35: Energy and Security in Northeast Asia: Fueling Security
1998
Energy and Security in Northeast Asia is a three-part series of papers showing that there are unrealized gains to be had from multilateral cooperation on energy issues. Such cooperation is the goal of the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation’s Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), an informal track-two discussion exploring the potential for cooperation on security issues among China, Japan, Russia, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the United States. Many papers in this collection first were presented to a September 1996 NEACD workshop on Northeast Asian energy and security held in Seoul, Korea. That workshop offered participating government officials and private experts an opportunity to explore the ramifications of increasing energy demand on future relations among their countries. After the workshop, IGCC solicited additional papers to analyze the basic premises among our initial contributions.
The United States' Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy: Challenges for India and Japan
ISAS Insights, 2018
Executive Summary The Donald Trump administration in the United States (US) has expanded its articulation of a 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific' (FOIP) region by announcing strategic investments and economic cooperation. India and Japan are fundamental to the realisation of the US vision of the region. For India and Japan, however, a deeper commitment to the US vision would depend on several factors. These include the prospects of the FOIP becoming a security-oriented strategy to counter China, as opposed to a regional connectivity programme; avoiding the legitimacy issues encountered by China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); and acquiring an inclusive character. The BRI has been inviting considerable criticism for pushing countries into debt traps and extracting strategic concessions for infrastructure funds. Coupled with developments like the revival of the 'Quad' Dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the US, the FOIP has the possibility of becoming a security-centric anti-China initiative. This would be to the discomfort of India and Japan, which would hesitate to take sides. Both countries would also wish for greater economic legitimacy and vision of a broader regional economic order from the FOIP, as opposed to it being an initiative for expanding US commercial presence in the region. Notwithstanding announcements of regional infrastructure investments and cooperation efforts, India's repeated emphasis on an 'inclusive' FOIP, Japan's decision to selectively engage with the BRI and their respective geopolitical approaches to the region and strategies towards China, will decide their commitment to the FOIP. However, staying engaged in the FOIP can give both an opportunity of enhancing geo-political and geo-economic contribution through an agenda of regional connectivity.
'An Analysis of Sino-Indian Energy Geopolitics in the Indian Ocean Region'
The character of Sino-Indian relations alongside the manner in which they manage their future as rising powers in the same geo-strategic neighbourhood promises to critically shape the course of International Relations in the 21st century. The rising energy consumption of their societies, and the necessity of acquiring a sufficient supply of energy assets to continue their economic development have together fuelled a sense of insecurity amongst Indian and Chinese policymakers, who now find themselves increasingly competing with one another in order to guarantee the security of their imports along narrow strategic chokepoints. The heightening of insecurity felt by policymakers as a result of their growing import dependence is leading both nations to pursue the modernization and enlargement of their respective navies within the Indian Ocean Region. The destabilizing effect of both powers growing maritime vulnerability upon energy imports passing through narrow strategic chokepoints are having upon the pre-existing security dilemma dynamics between the two powers thus forms the focus of this analysis. This analysis shall employ both material and ideational variables to demonstrate the multi-dimensional nature of the Sino-Indian energy dilemma. Consequently this investigation will conclude that the assertive actions of both navies are taken in the context of India and China’s growing reliance upon imported energy it presents a potent variable affecting the strategic calculus between the two powers in the region. This heightened uncertainty manifests itself most tangibly in China’s “Malacca Dilemma” and India’s “Hormuz Dilemma” indicating that economic processes by themselves have been unable to overcome the enduring rivalry between the two powers. In this regard the traditionalist prism which emphasizes the perpetual nature of insecurity in the inter-state realm is accurate in identifying the substantive challenge posed to both powers by their respective energy dilemmas. Nevertheless the pessimism engendered by the traditionalist materialist discourse and exemplified by the offensive realist scholars is guilty of subsuming the importance of ideational and perceptual variables in maintaining both powers conflictual relationship. Consequently by acknowledging the role played by both material and perceptual factors policymakers are capable of gaining a more holistic appraisal of both nations intentions in this arena. Furthermore the emphasis upon the immutability of power politics in the inter-state realm will mean policymakers subscribing to this prism will continue to view their counter-parts through the lens of zero-sum competition thereby precluding any prospects for substantive co-operation between New Delhi and Beijing.
The Origin and Evolution of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Vision
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION: STATES’ STRATEGIES AND REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS VOLUME I: STATES’ STRATEGIES IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION, 2024
Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision (FOIP) has moved to the forefront of Japan’s foreign policy since 2017. Nonetheless, it re- mains elusive as a tangible strategy as activities that fall under FOIP continue to evolve. This chapter investigates critical junc- tures in FOIP’s evolution between 2005 to today as it marks a de- marcation point for articulating the use of the term Indo-Pacific. Key lines of enquiry include: 1) What and why have critical junc- tures pushed FOIP to evolve?; and 2) Are these changes being insti- tutionalised? Findings suggest that Japan’s FOIP vision evolution cannot solely be explained through neorealism or liberal institu- tionalism, rather, Japan’s maritime strategy and its FOIP are sensi- tive to power distribution changes associated with China’s re-emer- gence as the dominant power in the region and the relative decline of the U.S. and that it adapts to these changes through a hybrid ap- proach. This approach includes: 1) a selective accommodation of China’s rise; 2) deeply integrating Japan into the Indo-Pacific politi- co-economy and rules-making process; 3) tightening the Japan-U.S. alliance and cementing the U.S. into the region; and 4) diversifying and deepening its strategic partnerships.