Winter 2007
Integrating Asia
This autumn the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrate the organization’s 40th anniversary. And there is plenty to celebrate: ASEAN has doubled its participating membership and now represents over 600 million people. In addition to trade and commerce, it is also a forum for political and security issues. In general, with closer integration and a greater economic profile Asia’s gravitas in the world has increased. In fact, all of Asia’s mutilateral organizations are increasingly important. In addition to ASEAN, there are the Six-Party Talks, ASEAN+3, the East Asia Summits, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, among others. They illustrate that despite its vast distances, political diversity, and cultural differences, an integrated Asia is not a pipe dream.
Letter from Budapest
Hungary, Right? 
Letters by Adam Lebor
For a politician whose party doesn’t have a single member in parliament and whose support ranks at one or two percent in opinion polls, Gabor Vona certainly has a gift for the political agenda. Vona is the leader of the far-right Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalam (Movement For A Better Hungary). Jobbik is a play on words in Hungarian, meaning both “better” and “more to the right.” Jobbik is more to the right than the main opposition party, Fidesz—and certainly better at public relations than all of its rivals across the political spectrum.
Letter from Paris
Mutilation is a Crime
Letters by Natacha Henry
On July 12, at the Palais de l’Élysée, President Nicolas Sarkozy presented nine people with the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest distinction for making the country a better place. I was invited by one of the medal winners, Linda Weil-Curiel, a tenacious 65-year-old lawyer who runs the Commission pour l’Abolition des Mutilations Sexuelles and who has fought female genital mutilation (FGM) in France for over twenty-five years.
The Road to an Asian Community
Article by Henrik Schmiegelow und Michèle Schmiegelow
Many observers deem it unthinkable that the enormous continent of Asia can grow together the way postwar Europe did. But, as the many authors in this issue of Internationale Politik—Global Edition attest, in Asia community-building is well underway as a strategy for the future.
Solving Global Problems Together
Article by Frank-Walter Steinmeier
That Asia was the theme of the German Foreign Ministry’s diplomats’ congress this year underscores its importance to the Federal Republic. German policy toward Asia has long been a central concern to us. Europe and Asia must cooperate not only on economic matters, but also on the environment, energy, and human rights.
ASEAN and Community-Building
Article by Ong Keng Yong
For 40 years ASEAN has been encouraging community-building in East Asia in different ways. The organization is a unique, constructive example of community-building and provides a forum for dialogue and cooperation between East Asian nations. The “ASEAN way” of interstate relations is a workable vision for the future.
Time to Suspend Myanmar
Article by Barry Desker
In light of recent human rights violations in Myanmar, ASEAN should suspend the military regime’s membership. As long as Myanmar is part of the highest councils of ASEAN, the organization will lack credibility addressing humanitarian issues elsewhere in the world.
Developing Through Cooperation
Article by Haruhiko Kuroda
As Asia proceeds down the path of regional economic integration, it looks to the EU as a successful model. However, there are several key differences between integration in Asia and in Europe, including the scope, sequence, and style of economic cooperation. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is an impetus to an increasingly integrated Asia.
The Big East
Article by Kishore Mahbubani
As Asia proceeds down the path of regional economic integration, it looks to the EU as a successful model. However, there are several key differences between integration in Asia and in Europe, including the scope, sequence, and style of economic cooperation. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is an impetus to an increasingly integrated Asia.
Toward a New Concept of Asia
Article by Kazuo Ogura
An East Asian community is coming to life. It is a fragile project that must overcome considerable obstacles. But if successful, it could institutionalize progress made on economic and social integration as well as consolidate a new vision of Asia and Asian values.
A New Decade of Cooperation
Article by Qian Qichen
Many powerful reasons speak in favor of East Asian regional cooperation. East Asia must build on its historical ties and take advantage of its thriving diversity to forge mutually beneficial economic integration, including free trade agreements, while establishing a regional security order and improving institution-building.
An Infuriating, Beautiful Democracy
Article by Ramesh Thakur
India’s economy—and its cachet with it—have grown enormously. Yet India is still grappling with the challenges of market reform, effective governance, and human development. Nevertheless, it looks resilient enough to steer the course.
East Asia’s International Debut
Article by Jusuf Wanandi
East Asian countries have to engage globally in those sectors in which they already cooperate regionally—incuding trade, energy, security, and the environment. The world order is changing and East Asia should help steer those changes. While the newcomers must accept the basic tenets of the current world order, they can contribute to it too.
An Alliance of Rivals
Article by C. Raja Mohan und Klaus Voll
The rise of China and India is shifting the global balance of power from west to east, and the strategic partnership between the two countries is adding momentum to this trend. If the European Union wants to be more than just a passive onlooker, it must engage both Asian powers as a unified political force—and overcome its fixation on Beijing.
New Footing for Japan-China Relations
Article by Yoshibumi Wakamiya
Japan’s strained relations with China have improved immensely since a low point in 2005. The new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, is building upon the achievements of his conservative predecessor. With Beijing’s and Tokyo’s leaderships visiting one another again, there is realistic hope for better relations and cooperation.
Central Europe I
New Countries, Old Myths
Article by Marek A. Cichocki
The intellectual roots of a “European union” are usually traced back to Western historical tradition. However, as countries in East-Central Europe accede to the European Union, this narrative of a uniquely Western European heritage must change. Today’s EU has to take into account the experiences of all 27 member states.
Central Europe II
The Power of Populism
Article by Kai-Olaf Lang
Over the past two years an array of social conservatives, agrarian populists, and left-wing nationalists have come to power in many Central European post-communist democracies. Are these young democracies floundering? Could illiberal currents steer them away from the European mainstream?
European Union
Europe’s Creative Chaos
Article by Rachel Herp Tausendfreund
Complaints that the new Lisbon Treaty lacks the grand visions of the failed constitutional treaty are misplaced. Visions of the European Union as a major player in world affairs distract from what the European Union is meant to do and does quite well. These ideas of EU grandeur also relieve the member states of accountability.
Mediterranean Union
Trouble in the Neighborhood
Article by Kerry Longhurst
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for a Mediterranean Union modeled on European integration. While greater engagement and cooperation with the European Union’s southern neighbors is a goal shared by many, the idea of an exclusive Mediterranean club has rightfully met with skepticism among France’s EU neighbors.
Revisiting the German Autumn
Article by Paul Hockenos
Thirty years after the German Autumn of 1977, this dark chapter in the history of the Federal Republic remains remarkably present in the consciousness and culture of contemporary Germany. Today, there are a dozen new books out on the Red Army Faction, as well as films, novels, a play, and an exhibition. How to explain all the hype?
Iraq and Vietnam
The Shadow of Vietnam
Book Review by John Feffer
In Iraq, the United States has vainly tried to escape its shadow—the shadow of Vietnam. No matter how strenuously the Bush administration has tried to outrun the legacy of the Vietnam War—the ignominious defeat, the stains on the US reputation, the subsequent constraints on the exercise of US power—it has discovered that this shadow exerts as much influence as any other fact on the ground. Vietnam simply refuses to go away.
Postcards from Guantánamo
Book Review by Belinda Cooper
In October 2001, shortly after 9/11, 19-year-old Murat Kurnaz traveled from Germany to Pakistan intending, he says, to study Islam. Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen born and raised in Bremen, Germany, son of secular Turkish guestworkers, was a shipbuilder’s apprentice, amateur bodybuilder, and trainer of fighting dogs who had grown increasingly religious. In Pakistan, he took up with an apparently peaceful Islamic missionary group and traveled with them from mosque to mosque. In December 2001 he was pulled off a bus by Pakistani security forces, interrogated, and turned over to American forces, most probably in exchange for a bounty. This was the start of five years of detention without charge or trial, first at the American base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and then at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. In summer 2006, Kurnaz was finally released.
The Space Between
Book Review by James Thomas Snyder
There is special tragedy in Hannah Arendt’s death, at age 69, in 1975. Had she lived just five more years she would have seen the first cracks split the façade of the totalitarian bloc that held dominion over most of Europe and Asia her entire adult life. She spent much of her career trying to understand that domination, and in so doing laid bare the means of its ultimate destruction.
Islam
Islamist Imperialism?
Book Review by Joseph Croitoru
Six years after 9/11 a new fear is gripping Germans, namely that the West is capitulating to the Islamic world. The media bears no small responsibility for this, as does the book market, which is capitalizing on the mood.
Documentation
Here are a few documents of relevance to the issues covered in our Winter 2007 issue.
