Asian Review of Political Economy - Call for Papers: Geopolitical Shifts and Economic Realignment in the Post-pandemic Asia

Call for Paper

For a Special Issue on

Geopolitical Shifts and Economic Realignment in the Post-pandemic Asia

Special Issue Editors:

Andrew X. Li, Department of International Relations, Central European University (Vienna and New York). 

Email: LiX@ceu.edu (this opens in a new tab)

Jian Xu, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore (Singapore).

Email: jianxu@nus.edu.sg (this opens in a new tab)

Preferred Submission Deadline:   31 March 2023

Publication of the special issue:    First half of 2023

Synopsis:

The aim of this special issue is to shed light on the causes and consequences of the emerging geopolitical dynamics and tensions involving Asia as well as the multifaceted considerations of states and businesses in realigning and readjusting their economic relationships with one another in the post-pandemic era. In recent years, Asia has witnessed increased geopolitical tensions and economic disruptions driven by both domestic and international factors. The region is also believed to be on track to become a major theatre of global competitions and potentially an epicenter of inter-state crises. U.S. and China are suspected of further “decoupling” while engaging in unprecedented competition and confrontation on multiple fronts; the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted global supply chains, created pressures on trade and investment flows, and restricted the movement of people; the war in Ukraine has led to divisions within Asian countries regarding how to respond to the aggressors.

All these events directly and indirectly impact Asian countries and economies in profound ways. States in the Asia-Pacific region have created multiple economic cooperation frameworks with oftentimes overlapping memberships, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and more recently, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). Such proliferation of regional trade and investment facilitation mechanisms ride on a new wave of geopolitical tensions, great power struggles over spheres of influence, local protectionist sentiments, as well as the needs for reinvigorating a rule-based supranational economic order. These new treaties and agreements may also complicate existing arrangements such as the Eurasian Customs Union (EACU). These dynamics have inevitably affected businesses’ commercial calculations on offshoring and reshoring strategies and, more broadly, the feasibility and profitability of deepening regional economic cooperation.

A variety of actors, including nation states, corporations, civil societies, and international organizations, have all responded to the ever-evolving geopolitical scenarios in different ways. It is worth exploring the interests, incentives, and constraints shaping these actors’ responses towards balancing among competing political-economic priorities, notably the tradeoffs in building different alliances and partnerships. It is also important to uncover the institutional and structural determinants and prescriptions for many of the more enduring, systematic problems that have been exacerbated by both the pandemic and the geostrategic maneuvers, such as populist and anti-globalization movements, economic inequality, ethnic and racial discord, and environmental and sustainability challenges.

The editors of the special issue welcome scholarly articles that engage with one or more theoretical perspectives from international and/or comparative political economy and focus on single or multiple countries, institutions, and/or various state and non-state actors in Asia and the connected regions. As such, geographical and methodological diversity is not only a necessity but also a key feature of the special issue.

How to submit a manuscript?

Please go through the Instructions for Authors (this opens in a new tab) and submit a manuscript through journal’s Editorial Manager site (this opens in a new tab)