Abstract
This is partly an original text for this volume, expanding on a regional comparison done in 2015. Peter Wallensteen specifies what “quality peace” entails, connects that to available studies of democratic peace as well as territorial peace, and then compares the post-1945 history of Western Europe to the one of East Asia. One point is that the settlement of territorial disputes seems to precede the development of qualitative regional cooperation.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter expands on a theme initiated in my article “Comparing Conditions for Quality Peace: Contemporary East Asia v. Post-War Western Europe” published in International Security Studies, Social Sciences Academic Press (China), Vol. 1. No 1. Summer 2015, pp. 59–76. Reproduced with permission.
- 2.
Peter Wallensteen 2015. Quality Peace. Peacebuilding, Victory and World Order, Oxford University Press, chapter 1, reproduced in this volume as Chapter 21. It leaves the issue of regional conflict complexes for further analysis, as noted in Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of that book.
- 3.
For more on this, see Wallensteen, Peter 1994. “Representing the World. A Security Council for the 21st Century,“ Security Dialogue Vol. 25 (1): 63–75. This article is included in the present volume as Chapter 12.
- 4.
Wallensteen Peter and Margareta Sollenberg, 1998. “Armed Conflict and Regional Conflict Complexes, 1989–1997,” Journal of Peace Research, 35 (1998): 593–606.
- 5.
See Peter Wallensteen and Anders Bjurner (eds). Regional Organizations in Peacemaking. Challengers to the UN? London: Routledge, 2015. Chapter 13 in this volume gives a summary of the arguments.
- 6.
This comparison is pursued by Peter Wallensteen and Stina Högbladh, 2020 “Peace Agreements in the Middle East: A Regional Challenge to Mediation” in Ibrahim Fraihat and Isak Svensson (eds). Mediation in the Arab World, forthcoming.
- 7.
Tønnesson, Stein, Erik Melander, Elin Bjarnegård, Isak Svensson and Susanne Schaftenaar 2013. ”The fragile peace in East and South East Asia,” SIPRI Yearbook 2013, chapter 1. II.
- 8.
Ringmar, Erik 2012. Performing International Systems: Two East-Asian Alternatives to the Westphalian Order, International Organization, 66 (2): 1–25.
- 9.
Van der Putten, Frans-Paul 2013. Towards a Pacific Community? The United States and Regional Leadership in East Asia, Journal of Global Policy and Governance, 2: 223–232. For more general treatments of this problem see Morgan, Patrick M 1999 ‘Regional Security Complexes and Regional Order,’ in David A. Lake and Patrick M. Morgan (eds) Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World, State College: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- 10.
Here the focus is on the region as a whole not just one particular organization, i.e. the European Union. For a discussion on the meaning of ‘region’ as well as the role of regional organizations, see Wallensteen and Bjurner 2015.
- 11.
These two incompatibilities are also central to the data collection of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. For the rationale, see for instance Peter Wallensteen 2019. Understanding Conflict Resolution. Fifth edition, London: Sage. A project led by Johan Brosché and Ralph Sundberg at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, pursues a deeper analysis of these incompatibilities.
- 12.
The 2015 migration crisis in Europe reinforced that nationalist sentiments and led to stricter border controls. Donald Trump used the building of a wall against migration from Mexico in his rhetoric in US presidential elections 2016 and construction on this project was started in 2019.
- 13.
A case in point is the Åland Islands between Sweden and Finland that gained self-rule in 1921 to protect Swedish-speakers. This solution lives on, soon celebrating its 100th birthday.
- 14.
It was typical for the Communist regimes in Europe, notably in Poland, to refer to German ‘revanchism’, based on the Federal Republic’s refusal to legally accept the new borders along the Oder-Neisse line. Chancellor Willy Brandt’s approach, Ostpolitik, changed this in the early 1970s.
- 15.
There is resistance: Kosovo does not yet have a seat in the UN General Assembly, partly due to Serbia’s opposition. See https://emerging-europe.com/news/serbias-campaign-to-reduce-the-number-of-countries-which-recognise-kosovo-is-working (downloaded June 13, 2020). Greece accepted the independence of its northern neighbor already 1995 but objected to its designation. The Prespa agreement of 2018 made North Macedonia the official name and established relations between the two countries.
- 16.
Wallensteen 2019, op.cit.
- 17.
The 2000s provide examples: The UN authorized operation in Libya in 2011 was carried out by NATO and resulted in the removal of a non-democratic regime. The 2003 Iraq War was an operation led by three democratic countries, USA, UK and Australia. In 2000 UK intervened in Sierra Leone to protect the government from rebels, something British Premier Tony Blair saw as an element of a ‘doctrine’ for democratic states, Blair 2010: 247–248. The expressed desire of the US Trump administration to withdraw militarily from Afghanistan for instance through the Doha Agreement of February 2020, ran counter to the perceived need to protect democratic gains and women’s rights in the country. Even during this presidency the US was heavily involved in conflicts in other states.
- 18.
The only exception so far is the inclusion of Cyprus into EU in 2004. This, in fact, undermined the proposed UN plan for a settlement prior to accession, something that had been a standard EU requirement before this. The conflict still remains unsettled.
- 19.
The border dispute may internationally have been overshadowed by the conflict over government in 1978: Vietnam’s removal of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. No doubt this action violated international norms, but at the same time ended massive repression.
- 20.
For news and analysis on boundary issues the International Boundaries Research Unit at Durham University (IBRU) is a good source, see, https://www.dur.ac.uk/ibru/news/boundary_news/.
- 21.
Thai News Service, 7 August 2006, via Factiva.com, via IBRU.
- 22.
Vietnam News Agency Bulletin, 14 July 2010, via IBRU archives and more recently https://www.dur.ac.uk/ibru/news/boundary_news/?itemno=21796&rehref=%2Fibru%2Fnews%2F&resubj=Boundary+news%20Headlines.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
- 26.
The notion could be termed an “aristocratic” or “elite-centered” peace: the regimes operate on similar, elite-agreed principles of governance (Wallensteen 2011, Chapter 3).
- 27.
Every election, since the mid-1990s, however, has been criticized for significant electoral irregularities.
- 28.
‘Japan recalls envoy to Russia over islands dispute’, Ellen Barry, New York Times, November 2 2010; ‘Kuril islands dispute between Russian and Japan’, BBC News, November 1 2010, from IBRU archives. When Putin returned to the Russian Presidency he took an even more intransigent attitude, notably bolstered by the popularity in Russia of the annexation of Crimea in 2014–15. In January 2019 New York Times reported on his attitude with respect to the Kurile Islands: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/world/europe/kuril-islands-putin-abe.html’.
- 29.
‘China rejects US involvement in China-Japan island row’, BBC News Asia-Pacific, 1 November 2010, from IBRU archives.
- 30.
We have noted one exception: the admission of Cyprus 2004. This meant losing an opportunity for a settlement as suggested by the Annan Plan, which would have brought North Cyprus into EU. Instead, EU’s role in Eastern Mediterranean suffered.
- 31.
Sweden has its own experience of this, since a Swedish citizen of Chinese origin was kidnapped by Chinese authorities in 2015 and 2018, see https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51624433.
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Data Archives
International Boundaries Research Unit, https://www.dur.ac.uk/ibru/.
Uppsala conflict data program, UCDP, http://www.ucdp.uu.se.
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Wallensteen, P. (2021). Conditions for Quality Peace: A Regional Approach. In: Peter Wallensteen: A Pioneer in Making Peace Researchable. Pioneers in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Practice, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62848-2_22
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