Bureaucrats become powerful when they stage emotionally calibrated performances as “servants” before state principals, earn their trust, and carve out space for action through “whispering,” “propagating,” cultivating patrons, and building coalitions behind the scenes and on the sidelines of official interaction. These servant performances involve what sociologist Arlie Hochschild calls “emotional labor,” that is, the management of feelings when fulfilling the requirements of a job. Prof. Nair will develop a theory of emotional labor in international bureaucracies that explains why bureaucrats perform such work and how, if skilfully done, it can empower them. He will test the theory with an ethnography of the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta—a “hard” case that does not fit prevailing theorizations of bureaucratic power. Prof. Nair will also show how his theory can be applied to other, Euro-American bureaucracies.

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This workshop is part of the Economic History Workshop series in the Department of Economics and is co-sponsored by The Europe Center.

This workshop is part of the Economic History Workshop series in the Department of Economics and is co-sponsored by The Europe Center.

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The JIIA-Stanford Symposium

"The Past, Present, and Future International Order in East Asia"

May 10, 2019

Bechtel Conference Center, Encina Hall, Stanford University

Sponsored and organized by the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA) and Japan Program and the US-Asia Security Initiative of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) of the Freeman Spogli Institue of International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University 
 

Interstate relations in East Asia are at a critical juncture.  The post-World War II regional order, shaped by the San Francisco Treaty of 1951, underpinned by a common commitment to a liberal trade system, and led by the United States, is under stress.  The end of the Cold War, rise of China, and recent changes in America’s foreign policy orientation have transformed the environment that sustained “the San Francisco System.”  It is unclear if this system will be maintained, and if not, what will replace it.  The lineage of the San Francisco System itself reaches back to the post-World War I Versailles-Washington System.  An examination of the success and shortcomings of each of these systems can offer insights on the rise and fall of international systems, especially in an Asian context.  In this symposium, we explore the circumstances that shaped the establishment and evolution of the East Asian political, economic, and security architectures from post-WWI to present; discuss the forces that built and undermined the past and existing architecture; and debate possible regional futures.  We will emphasize the perspectives and roles of the U.S., Japan, and China, and focus on major influencing factors including historical legacies, the changing distribution of global power, alliance structures, and political ideologies.

Agenda

9:00am - 9:30am 
Registration and Breakfast 
 

9:30am - 9:45am 
Welcome Remarks: 
Gi-Wook Shin, Director, APARC, Stanford University 
Kenichiro Sasae, President, JIIA 
Takeo Hoshi, Director, Japan Program, APARC, Stanford Univeristy 
 

9:45am - 11:30am 
Panel I: Comparing “the Versailles-Washington System” and “San Francisco System”: Lessons from the Rise and Fall of International Orders in East Asia

Chair: Daniel Sneider, FSI, Stanford University

Panelists: 
Shin Kawashima, University of Tokyo 
Masaya Inoue,  Seikei University 
Lin Hsiao-ting, Hoover Institution, Stanford University 
David Kennedy, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), FSI, Stanford University 
 

11:30am - 1:15pm 
Lunch 

Keynote Speaker: Ambassador Michael Armacost

1:15pm - 3:00pm 
Panel Discussion II: Japanese, U.S. and Chinese Interests and Security

Chair: Kenichiro Sasae, JIIA 

Panelists: 
Ken Jimbo, Keio University 
Tetsuo Kotani, JIIA 
Mike Lampton, APARC, Stanford University 
Jim Schoff, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) 
 

3:00pm - 3:30pm 
Coffee Break 
 

3:30pm - 5:15pm 
Panel Discussion III: Alternative Future East Asia Systems

Chair: Phillip Lipscy, FSI, Stanford University 

Panelists: 
Jim Fearon, FSI, Stanford University 
Ryo Sahashi, University of Tokyo 
Kenichiro Sasae, President, JIIA 
Tom Christensen, Columbia University 
 

5:15pm - 5:35pm 
Rapporteurs' review of symposium discusisons 
 

5:35pm - 5:45pm 
Closing Remarks: 
Karl Eikenberry, Director, US-Asia Security Initiative, APARC, Stanford University 
Kenichiro Sasae, President, JIIA 
 

5:45pm - 6:30pm 
Reception (Encina Lobby)

Despite adverse implications for its image, when it comes to territorial disputes, China has been willing to employ coercion. But Beijing is selective regarding the timing, targets, and tools of coercion. Military coercion is rare and the forms and uses of coercion vary. In the face of what China sees as similar threats by different countries, for example, Beijing tends to tailor its responses, country by country, case by case. Dr. Zhang will focus on Chinese coercive behavior in the South China Sea. She will offer a new theory as to when, why, and how China coerces other states.  Leveraging a wealth of newly available primary documents and hundreds of hours of interviews with Chinese officials, she will trace the decision-making processes that result in coercion’s use or non-use.

Where others may view China as repetitively aggressive, Dr. Zhang sees a cautious bully that does not coerce frequently and has tended, as it has gained strength, to use non-kinetic kinds of coercion. She finds that protecting a reputation for resolve and calculating economic costs are critical elements in China’s decision-making regarding the (dis)advantages of coercing its neighbors. Nor is the intended target country necessarily clear. China often coerces one to deter another – “killing the chicken to scare the monkey.” Implications will also drawn from her research that can help in projecting China’s likely future foreign-policy behavior beyond Southeast Asia and in understanding the roles played by coercion in the strategies of states more generally.

To learn more about, watch a recent interview APARC filmed with Dr. Zhang.

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Abstract: My research investigates the formal institutionalization of inter-governmental cooperation among the three major Northeast Asian powers – China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea—in the face of a continued North Korean threat. How much of a shadow, if any, has North Korea’s nuclear weapons cast over the development of multilateralism in the region? Since 1999, the Northeast Asian region has seen intensifying institutionalization of cooperation among its major powers. In a region where the realist logic of state-centric nationalism, sovereignty, and balance of power still prevails, this new development of trilateral cooperation among the former and potential adversaries deserves serious scholarly investigation. What started as economic and functional cooperation, trilateral cooperation has since been substantially expanded to include political and security agendas at the highest level of government. What explains the emergence and endurance of trilateral cooperation and to what extent has containing the North Korean nuclear crisis shaped its institutional trajectory and outcomes? By examining the evolution of trilateral cooperation, I address some critical gaps in our understanding of formal institution building and the economic-security nexus in one of the most dynamic regions in the world.

Speaker's Biography: Yeajin Yoon is a 2018-2019 MacArthur Nuclear Security Pre-doctoral Fellow at CISAC and a doctoral candidate in the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. Her dissertation examines the evolution of trilateral cooperation among the most militarily and economically dominant states in Northeast Asia, namely, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and considers when and how their relations become implicated in the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Prior to entering academia, Yeajin travelled extensively across Asia and worked with national governments, international organisations, and NGOs in the region. She led the development of the inaugural issue of the 'Oxford Government Review’ and helped facilitate a Track II dialogue on wartime history issues in Asia at Stanford University. Previously, she worked as a founding member of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, the official intergovernmental organisation for China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea and managed a development fund focused on the ASEAN region at the Korean Foreign Ministry.

Yeajin received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with Honors from Stanford University and a Master of Public Policy degree from Oxford University.