Dear colleagues,

I believe that some of you may be interested in my recently published monograph, which is dealing with territorial disputes between Japan and its neighbors.

These Islands Are Ours: The Social Construction of Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia

Stanford University Press, Studies in Asian Security Series, 232 pages
Publication date: 10/03/2020
Cloth ISBN: 9781503611894
Digital ISBN: 9781503611900

Brief Description

Territorial disputes are one of the main sources of tension in Northeast Asia. Escalation in such conflicts often stems from a widely shared public perception that the territory in question is of the utmost importance to the nation. While that's frequently not true in economic, military, or political terms, citizens' groups and other domestic actors throughout the region have mounted sustained campaigns to protect or recover disputed islands. Quite often, these campaigns have wide-ranging domestic and international consequences.

Why and how do territorial disputes that at one point mattered little, become salient? Focusing on non-state actors rather than political elites, Alexander Bukh explains how and why apparently inconsequential territories become central to national discourse in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. These Islands Are Ours challenges the conventional wisdom that disputes-related campaigns originate in the desire to protect national territory and traces their roots to times of crisis in the respective societies. This book gives us a new way to understand the nature of territorial disputes and how they inform national identities by exploring the processes of their social construction, and amplification.
Contents

Introduction

1 Japan's "Northern Territories"

2 Shimane Prefecture's Quest for Takeshima

3 The "Protect Dokdo" Movement in South Korea

4 Taiwan's "Protect the Diaoyutai" Baodiao Movement

Conclusion

For further information please visit:
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31650
OR
https://www.academia.edu/42071828/These_Islands_Are_Ours_The_Social_Construction_of_Territ...

Yours,

Alexander Bukh

Victoria University of Wellington


Dr Alexander Bukh

Political Science and International Relations Programme
Victoria University of Wellington
Phone:+64 (0)4 463 9450
Fax: +64 (0)4 463 5351