No 1 (2015): East Asia: the rise of the PRC, development cooperation, partnership with the Russian Federation

Since joining the DAC in 2010, Korea has made a great deal of effort to enhance its role in international development cooperation. This paper reviews the evolution of Korea’s ODA policy by discussing how the Korea’s development experience as a recipient and its accession to the DAC have inextricably shaped the ODA policy and strategies. It shows that the different interest and motivation of the Ministry of Strategies and Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been strongly reflected in Korea’s ODA policy. The Korean government has committed to bridge developed and developing countries by proposing “the Korean ODA model”. This paper argues that integration of DAC principles and norms into the Korean ODA model remains a challenge.

This article analyzes the policy of fifth generation of Chinese leadership with regard to African states. The article deals with the concept of “Chinese Dream”, which was first declared in Africa, an innovative model of international cooperation in the framework of the formation of “economic zone of the Silk Road”. The authors reveal three basic directions of cooperation - political, economic and humanitarian cooperation. Political cooperation is characterized by the activation of mutual visits at the highest level, the interaction in the framework of the UN General Assembly, participation in UN peacekeeping operations. Economic cooperation is characterized by the activation of bilateral trade, the transition to a “modernized version of” investment cooperation, implementation of the strategy of “going abroad” of Chinese products, imports of natural resources from Africa, creating jobs for the local population, financing of infrastructure projects, the transfer of labor-intensive industries in Africa. Humanitarian cooperation includes training program for Africa, the implementation of the Sino-African programs, technology partnerships, research and exchange, and the China-Africa Forum “Think Tank”. Cooperation in health care also plays an important role. The authors note that the new Chinese leadership declares transition to an upgraded version of the Sino-African cooperation.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the conceptual basis of the foreign policy of the PRC (1950-1990 period), the «Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence», the «Three Worlds Theory», the concept of the «intermediate zones» as well as the «four modernizations» are under consideration. Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 Asian state has passed several stages of the formation of an independent foreign policy, foreign policy, which not only allows to respond to the contemporary challenges of international relations, but also to gain a decisive voice in the world. And if in the early 50-ies China relies solely on foreign experience in this area, after ten years the government was forced to develop a new foreign policy concept, independent of the USSR and the USA. In the 70-ies of XX century, China not only transformed foreign policy into the tool of economic development promotion, but in fact became the leader of the «Third World». It is noteworthy that China still considers itself as developing country. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the bipolar system Beijing had to adjust its foreign policy settings once again, what eventually led to the strengthening of the desire to create a polycentric system of international relations. The study concludes that the modern concept of China's foreign policy was the natural result of the evolution of China's foreign policy doctrines since its inception.

The article presents the foreign policy course of the USA towards Russia and China, as well as bilateral U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese cooperation. The author attempts to discover the main reasons and retrace the process of rapprochement between Russia and China in the context of the Washington’s foreign policy implementation on the world stage. Analyzing the particular foreign policy steps of the U.S. since the late 1990s up to the events of 2014, the author focuses on the fact that Washington’s global foreign policy strategy not only meets the national interests of Russia and China, but also poses a threat to their national security. This is an additional factor for rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing both in bilateral relations and issues on a global basis. Consequently, the author concludes that the U.S. foreign policy causes the rapprochement between Russia and China, which should be considered as a strategically well-targeted step of the both states, based on the desire to achieve mutually beneficial cooperation and support, the similarity of positions on many international issues and common approaches to adaptation in a changing world order.

The article is devoted to Russian-Chinese humanitarian cooperation in the 90-ies of XX century. The author emphasizes the special importance of humanitarian cooperation between Russia and China for the promotion of national interests and the expansion of Russia's presence in China after the collapse of the USSR, as well as creating a positive image of the Russian state in China by applying the mechanism of “soft power”. The author notes that the 90-ies of XX century were the starting point of cooperation between Russia and China in the humanitarian sphere, it laid the legal foundation of Russian-Chinese humanitarian cooperation, moreover, the main directions and priorities of cooperation between the two countries in the humanitarian field have been identified. However, the author stresses that the practical realization of the objectives of the signed intergovernmental documents was carried out in an insufficiently wide format. And the main reason is the deep socio-economic crisis, which Russia had faced after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, as a consequence, the lack of funding for joint Russian-Chinese projects in the humanitarian field.

The analysis of interregional economic partnership existing simultaneously with the concept of traditional regionalism is proposed in the article. The cases of Trans-Pacific strategic economic partnership agreement (TPSEPA) which is created already for some decades; Transpacific agreement on strategic and economic partnership plan (2012), under which the US and the EU are going to form a Transatlantic FTA (TAFTA); initiative of Asia and Pacific countries (presented at the summit of these countries in 2012) to form a Regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) are described. The case of BRICS is analyzed in details. The economic factors joining the countries - participants of the group are analyzed. The prospects of broadening of its partnership - with participation of economies of South America are highlighted. Russian external trade is touched by machinery production and accompanying services with the countries-partners mentioned. It’s shown that these economic relations can be used by Russia for solving of the tasks of substitution of import, neo-industrialization and export stimulating.

The paper presents the analysis of South Africa’s BRICS Presidency which formally started with the summit in Durban on March 15-17, 2013 and finished in June 2014 with the BRICS leaders’ Fortaleza meeting. To assess the Presidency effectiveness the author applies “supply-demand” model fine-tuned to achieve a balance of external conditions and national priorities of the country chairing informal summitry institutions, such as BRICS, G20 or G7/8. This analytical paradigm allows reveal to what extent the Presidency has managed to ensure: 1) a high level of response to the key global governance challenges in the summit agenda and decisions; 2) a balance between internal demand (domestic priorities) and external demand (other members’ interests and global governance challenges) in the Presidency priorities; 3) maximal use of the institution’s capabilities. Conformity of the role chosen by the Presidency (organizer, mediator, political leader, national representative) to the combination of external and internal conditions is also considered as it is a major factor of the presidency success. Content analysis, comparative analysis and functional approach were used in the study. The primary sources of the research included the BRICS documents, national documents of the member states, the leaders’ addresses. The study reveals that the major factors of the South African BRICS presidency success were commitment to implementation of the Durban decisions and action plan as well as the will to utilize the BRICS capabilities for African countries development and South African regional leadership. In the former case the foundation of success was reinforced the chair’ choice of the organizer role, whereas in the latter a combination of the political leader and national representative roles proved to be the most productive for the presidency.

The article overviews the policy of China in the South Caucasus. It analyzes the means of so-called “soft power”, which are used by Beijing for expansion of its influence, in particular over Georgia. This research embraces the historical period since the collapse of the Soviet Union up to the current period. Political processes bringing about for the last years throughout post-soviet space are considered within the context of confrontation between global players in the South Caucasus trying to establish their domination - Russia, the USA and EU and from recent times China. Rivalry between them for the influence in this region is accompanied by mass of capital into the economics of the region. In particular, consolidation of Chinese presence in Georgia was marked by growth of Chinese investments into the state economics. In conclusion the author points that China represents power with ability to compete with Western states and Russia for important geostrategic position in Transcaucasia.

In his interview, the famous sinologist Vladimir Portyakov talks about the achievements of Chinese Studies in Russia, the development of domestic science and main thematic trends. He points out a significant expansion of the research areas, which affects currently civilizational foundations, art, literature. He describes the most important scientific projects that currently are realized by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Russian Academy of Science, including six-volume encyclopedia of the traditional culture of China, taiwanese scientists project on the Oral History of Chinese Studies, Russian archives of Chinese Studies, ten-volume Chinese history from ancient times to the beginning of the XXI century, and others. The main centers for the study of China in Russia during the Soviet era (Moscow, Lenigrad and Chita) and nowadays are indicated and the trend for a significant geographic expansion of the study of China is designated. The basic modern Russian sinologists and the role of the Confucius Institute are also described. Vladimir Portyakov provides a detailed analysis of the problems and prospects of Chinese Studies in Contemporary Russia.

The Circassian diaspora is the biggest North Caucasian diaspora whose members live in almost every continent. In some countries, “Сircassian question” has acquired an evident political tint in relation to the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. This article discusses come elements of the North Caucasian policy of the USA, EU and Turkey relation to the problems of the Circassian people. In the US and the EU “Circassian question” is usually used as a tool of negative pressure on Russia. In this regard, “Circassian question” is not the most important place in the politics of America and Europe, and is is activated only when it has to be used against Russia. In Turkey, the “Circassian question” has very important inner meaning, since there resides the largest Circassian diaspora. The Turkish authorities pay attention to this issue in connection with the problem of national identity of Turkish society. Also, “Circassian question” is used as a tool for rapprochement with the peoples of the North Caucasus in order to spread its influence and education of pro-Turkish population. In the Turkish policy “Circassian question” plays the role of a bridge between Turkey and the North Caucasus, and is an example of positive coexistence of titular nation and a national minority in a modern state.