Study Note in East Asia Politics Class

 Pivot to Asia

In the fall of 2011, the Obama Administration announced a series of policies that the USA would be expanding and intensifying its role in Asia Pacific, known as ‘Pivot to Asia-Pacific’ or ‘Rebalancing toward Asia’. Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State suggested a broad picture of rebalancing in Foreign Policy of October 2011. According to former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, the USA is seeking to achieve a ‘stable security environment and a regional order rooted in economic, openness, peaceful resolution of disputes, and respect for universal rights and freedoms’ through actions in five areas: strengthening alliances, deepening partnerships with emerging powers, building a stable, productive, and constructive relationship with China, empowering regional institutions, and helping to build a regional economic architecture.                                   

Open Door Policy

The Open-Door policy was a statement of principles initiated by the United States in 1899 and 1900. It called for protection of equal privileges for all countries trading with China and for the support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity. The statement was issued in the form of two circulars (diplomatic notes), dispatched by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay to Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia. The Open-Door policy was a cornerstone of American foreign policy in East Asia until the mid-20th century.

Smart power is defined as the ability to combine hard- and soft-power resources into effective strategies. Hard power is the use of coercion and payment. Soft power is the ability to obtain preferred outcomes through attraction. 

Yoshida Doctrine

Prime minister Yoshida Shigeru's policy for Japan's postwar recovery. It consisted of focusing the country's resources on economic production supported by well-trained workers while adopting the United States stance on issues of security and international politics. The policy led to spectacular economic growth and continued to guide Japan's economic and foreign policies for decades. By the 1990s, however, it created a new set of issues that Japan had to contend with. Large trade imbalances and protectionism brought on intense pressure from without to eliminate unfair trade practices, while within Japan businesses with global markets called for a more flexible workforce and open markets for foreign goods. Japan also found itself under pressure to assume a greater share of the international military burden, which involved facing public distrust of the military and long-held pacifism.

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear-Weapons (NPT)

The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. The Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States. Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970. On 11 May 1995, the Treaty was extended indefinitely.  A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States.