Panel Session IV - Issues of common concern to be addressed through regional cooperation
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Mr Justin DARGIN
Research Fellow, Dubai Initiative-Harvard University
United States
Emergent Energy Cooperation in Asia; Pathways for the Future
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Professor LIM Tai Wei
Assistant Professor, Department of Japanese Studies
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
A Economic-Historical Study of Eco-Tourism in Northeast Asia
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Professor Stephen Robert NAGY
Assistant Professor, Department of Japanese Studies
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Crossing the Traditional Security Rubicon: Non-traditional Security as a Platform for Broader Regionalism in East Asia
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Justin Dargin is a Research Fellow with The Dubai Initiative and a Fulbright Scholar of the Middle East. He specializes in carbon trading, the global oil and gas market, the legal framework surrounding the Gulf energy sector and Middle Eastern geopolitics. Before coming to Harvard, Justin studied at Georgetown University Law Center (honors) where his thesis researched the development of a potential carbon trading platform in the Gulf and its impact on foreign direct investment in the regional energy sector. He is completing his doctorate at the School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford. Justin has worked at Owens Corning Global Headquarters in the international legal department, as an integral part of the compliance team for adherence to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and in structuring relations with its Saudi Arabian and South African joint ventures. Justin also worked in the legal department at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and was a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where he pioneered the first major substantive work on transnational gas trade in the form of the Dolphin Project. Justin is on a variety of boards; he sits on the board of directors of the International Energy Foundation, on the review committee for Fulbright Scholars, is the Senior Advisor to the European Geopolitical Forum (EGF) on EU-Gulf Energy Relations and is a member of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations as a global energy expert. He is fluent in Spanish, Arabic and English.
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Justin Dargin
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
79 J.F.K. Street, Mailbox 134
Cambridge, MA 02138
T.248.894.5938
F.617.496.0606
justin_dargin@hks.harvard.edu
Emergent Energy Cooperation in Asia; Pathways for the Future
Northeast Asia is home to some of the world’s most dynamic economies. At the center of this economic growth lies China, where China is now the world’s largest energy consumer. Furthermore, economic growth rates, which bear a strong correlation to energy consumption, are slated to grow not only in China, but in the other the other major regional economies of Japan and South Korea. The focus of the major Northeast Asian economies (China, Japan and South Korea) over the coming years will be to secure adequate and consistent supplies of energy to fuel their economic growth. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the importation of fossil fuels bears an even greater importance as NEA nations seek to limit their use of nuclear energy demand to meet their growing energy demand. This paper examines the growing gap in NEA between energy demand and indigenous supply, and how the NEA governments seek to mitigate potential supply disruptions by nascent steps towards cooperation in the energy sector.
This paper explores how an institutional framework could be created in order to promote energy cooperation in NEA. In addition, this presentation looks at how NEA multilateral energy cooperation could be facilitated given the geopolitical competition and the divergent interests and development strategies of the major potential stakeholders in such a project. A practical roadmap will be developed which would illustrate the various aspects and steps of cooperation, from how to facilitate cooperation on such a broad scope, to the development of financial mechanisms to foster regional energy cooperation.
Lim Tai Wei is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Japanese Studies (JAS), Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He teaches course on Japan, its economic development, final year projects, J-management, masters supervision and introductory survey courses on Japan. He works on history and historiography of environment, energy and regionalism issues in Northeast Asia (specifically on Japan and China).
A Historical Study of Eco-Tourism Cooperation in Northeast Asia
As a resource-scarce economy, Japan is dependent on sustainable use of resources for its continued economic growth, especially in emerging new industries like eco-tourism. This may be considered as part of the process where Japan and other economies in Northeast Asia transits to new sunrise service-related sectors.
The scope working paper examines how Japan’s developmental historical experience in eco-tourism is relevant to similar initiatives, policies and transitions by other economies in Northeast Asia in the future. In addition, it examines if and how historical differences in economic development and trajectories and local conditions between various Northeast Asian economies are taken into account for promoting eco-tourism within the region.
Dr. Stephen R. Nagy has been an Assistant Professor at the Department of Japanese Studies since December 2009. He obtained his PhD from Waseda University, Japan in International Studies in December 2008 for his dissertation entitled “Analysis of the Multicultural Coexistence Ideas and the Practices of Local Governments in the Tokyo Metropolis” and worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies at Waseda University from October 2007 to November 2009. His current funded research projects are “Human Security Paradigm in Japan: Exploring the Challenges and Possibilities of International Cooperation in Northeast Asia” and “Investigating the Role of Local Governments Immigration and Migrant Policies in Hong Kong and Tokyo”. His research interests include migration, human security, Asian regional integration and regionalism in Asia. In conjunction with his research focus on Asian regional integration he was appointed a Senior Fellow with the Global Institute of Asian Regional Integration (GIARI), Waseda University. He can be reached via e-mail at nagystephen@cuhk.edu.hk.
Recent publications:
2011 Nagy, S.R. “Regional Regime and Norm Building : Redefining Japan’s
Regional Role in East Asia through Environmental and Human
Security, ” Tamkang Journal of International Affairs. 15 :1 2011.07, pp. 1-
38
2010 Nagy, S.R. 2010. Multicultural Coexistence Activities: Responses of local governments in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area to the pressures of migration” Global Movements in the Asia Pacific. KEE Pookong (eds). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. pp. 147-179.
2009 Nagy, S.R. 2009. “Local Government and Multicultural Coexistence Practices in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area: Integrating a Growing Foreigner Minority Population,” Ethnic Minorities and Regional Development in Asia: Reality and Challenges, Huhua Cao, ed., International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) Publication Series, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp.165-183.
2009 “Migration and the Potential for International Cooperation in East Asia: A Comparative Examination of State Integration Policies in Japan and Korea,” in Asian Regional Integration Review Vol. 1.,Tsuneo Akaha, Stephen R. Nagy, eds., Tokyo: Global COE, Global Institute for Regional Integration, 2009, pp. 1-19.
2009 “National Exclusion, Local Inclusion: Examining the Disconnect between National Immigration Policies and Local Integration Policies,” La Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales (REMI), 2008. Vol. 24, N.3, pp.31-51
Crossing the Traditional Security Rubicon: Non-traditional Security as a Platform for Broader Regionalism in East Asia
In the post WW II period, traditional security (TS) concerns in East Asia such as nuclear proliferation, territorial disputes, the partition of states and competition for resources remain major impediments to broader cooperation in not only the security sphere but also in the realms of economic, political and social cooperation. Compounding these challenges, states in East Asia are also highly concerned with maintaining their sovereignty and abiding by non-interference principles when it comes to internal matters resulting in a region of the world with a relative paucity of regional institutions that could act as a platform for regional dialogue and diffusing disputes in the region.
Where TS concerns may continue to be strong barriers to broader cooperation in the area, non-traditional security (NTS) issues that are transnational in scope and not entirely inhibited by national borders such as the spread of infectious diseases, financial crises, natural and manmade disasters and environmental damage are strong candidates for developing broader cooperation in East Asia. The NTS events such as the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2003 SARS Outbreak, the 2005 Tsunami in Indonesia and the March 11, 2011 natural and nuclear disaster in the Northeastern area of Japan are the most recent and very concrete examples of transnational events that must be dealt with collectively as they are not problems that can be contained within any one state’s national boundaries.
Employing human security concepts, this paper argues that although TS issues will continue to hamper regional integration, NTS cooperation in East Asia already has an existing track record that can be leveraged to encourage broader integration in the region and mitigate some of the challenges associated with the spread of infectious diseases, financial crises, natural and manmade disasters and environmental damage.
