The Journal of Regional Security Special Collections is a curated thematic section that brings together selected articles from previous issues of the Journal of Regional Security into one easily accessible ‘virtual issue’. Designed as a dynamic reference point for readers, it gathers the most relevant scholarship on pressing contemporary security themes in a single place, making it easier to navigate the journal’s rich archive. Current collections include Crises and Conflicts, Theory, European Security, Western Balkans, Global Security, Security and Society, and Security and Development. In particular, the Global Security collection brings together articles that explore transnational security challenges, great power competition, global governance, emerging threats, and the interconnected crises that increasingly shape international order beyond regional boundaries.
“Ukraine’s agency in Japanese discourse: Everything ok with government and people, while academia in trouble” by Hosaka, Sanshiro, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 47-58 (2023).
Abstract: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the problems of the Japanese academic discourse on Ukraine. This essay has two purposes. First, it describes how Russia’s invasion has altered Tokyo’s official policies and public discourse by driving away Russian disinformation and propaganda narratives while articulating the multiple chasms among academics regarding Ukraine and Russia. Second, it highlights the embedded assumptions commonly seen in many researchers dealing with post-Soviet space: Russia-centred ontology (e.g., “Ukraine is a periphery of Russia”, “fraternal nations”) and counterhegemonic epistemology that blames the collective West for “Russophobia.”
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41778
“Non-Western responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine: Learning from Indonesia” by Dharmaputra, Radityo, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 59-68 (2023).
Abstract: Using Indonesia, one of the leading voices in the so-called Global South, I trace the diverse narratives of non-Western elites on interpreting the war in Ukraine, the relationship between Russia and the “non-Western” world, and the NATO factors. The lack of knowledge about Russia and Ukraine, coupled with the strong anti-Western sentiment, has created a more proRussian sentiment in the Indonesian narratives about the war. This tendency was made stronger by the postcolonial thinking in Indonesian elite discourse, creating an ‘understander’ narrative rooted in the local postcolonial history instead of being driven by external, material factors.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41779
“China and its region: An assessment of hegemonic prospects” by Vučetić, Srđan, Journal of Regional Security 17 (2): 155-86 (2022).
Abstract: Will China’s rise lead to Chinese hegemony? Most International Relations scholars would answer in the negative, contending the road to a global hegemony remains well beyond Beijing’s interests and capabilities. In Asia, however, China’s formidable economy, technological advancement, rapidly modernizing military forces, and recent geopolitical moves look outright hegemonic – a fact that United States attempts to “pivot” and “rebalance” to that region have put into sharp relief. To assess the prospects of a new regional hegemony, this article considers the “economic,” “security” and “cultural” relations of eleven Asian states with both Beijing and Washington. The overall results induce skepticism about the latter’s ability to reorder the region. Although growing and in some cases significant, China’s provision of international goods to neighboring countries still pales in comparison to that centered on the United States and its allies. Sightings of an Asian Pax Sinica are at best premature.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs0-32643
“The rise of China as a hegemonic power: The case for a partial peaceful rise” by Bin Huwaidin, Mohamed, and Osman Antwi Boateng, Journal of Regional Security 17 (2): 187-207 (2022).
Abstract: China’s rise is a significant concern for international security. It is essential to understand the trajectory of China’s rise in order to determine world safety and prosperity measures in a period of great uncertainty. This study provides an overview of the two main possible security consequences of China’s rise, that is, a peaceful rise and a warlike rise, by surveying arguments found in literature regarding both aspects. The research extends beyond the often-made binary argument of “peaceful rise versus non-peaceful rise” since aspects of both arguments can explain the country’s rise. This research offers a nuanced assessment of China’s rise by positing a partial peaceful rise explanation whereby China seeks a non-confrontational way of asserting itself globally vis-a-vis the United States, while at the same time, modernizing and expanding its military capabilities in preparation for any eventualities.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs0-31562
“The COVID-19 vaccines as extension of foreign policies by other means” by Dokmanović, Mirjana, and Neven Cvetićanin, Journal of Regional Security 17 (2): 209-40 (2022).
Abstract: Existing knowledge of the geopolitics of public health and the coronavirus pandemic indicates that states, particularly the most powerful ones (the United States, China, Russia), have used the current global crisis to strengthen their influence worldwide, in line with their geopolitical, economic, and military aspirations. Geopoliticisation of the COVID-19 vaccines have not been explored so far. Based on the qualitative analysis of the media content and statistics on the vaccines’ distribution, this article makes two arguments. First, these vaccines have become an extension of foreign policy by other means. Second, geopoliticisation of the distribution of vaccine contributes to an instrumentalisation of the pandemic, raising global insecurity and the destabilisation of states and economies on the periphery and semi-periphery. Due to this new Cold War between the ‘vaccine superpowers’ , the world has become divided into Western and the Eastern ‘vaccine-blocs’. Within this context, the chances for multilateral cooperation to counter global threats are on a downward trajectory.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs17-32782
“Looking beyond rape and war: The need to take violence prevention seriously in Women, Peace and Security” by López Castañeda, Diana, and Henri Myrttinen, Journal of Regional Security 17 (1): 49-64 (2022).
Abstract: Existing knowledge of the geopolitics of public health and the coronavirus pandemic indicates that states, particularly the most powerful ones (the United States, China, Russia), have used the current global crisis to strengthen their influence worldwide, in line with their geopolitical, economic, and military aspirations. Geopoliticisation of the COVID-19 vaccines have not been explored so far. Based on the qualitative analysis of the media content and statistics on the vaccines’ distribution, this article makes two arguments. First, these vaccines have become an extension of foreign policy by other means. Second, geopoliticisation of the distribution of vaccine contributes to an instrumentalisation of the pandemic, raising global insecurity and the destabilisation of states and economies on the periphery and semi-periphery. Due to this new Cold War between the ‘vaccine superpowers’ , the world has become divided into Western and the Eastern ‘vaccine-blocs’. Within this context, the chances for multilateral cooperation to counter global threats are on a downward trajectory.
