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East Asia draws the attention of experts in recent years due to the unprecedented economic and political growth of the countries of the region. However, despite the significant role that the region plays in world politics and economics, the absence of security mechanisms and the presence of several potential spots of conflicts, such as the contradiction between China and Japan, make the region volatile. The article makes an attempt to understand the root of the Sino-Japanese relations and their conflicting potential using the classical concept of “security dilemma”. The research is based on the theory of realism and the idea of “security dilemma” in the understanding of this school of international relations. The article argues that the current problems in Sino-Japanese relations, including territorial disputes and the problems of the interpretation of historical events, have deeper roots that can be explained using the concept of “security dilemma” and the historical competition for regional leadership in East Asia. The article also pays attention to the importance of preserving stability in the region for modern Chinese foreign policy to secure the reinforcement of the political influence of China on a more vast, global level. Thus Sino-Japanese contradiction and the “security dilemma” in the region play an important role in Chinese foreign policy as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the topical problem of energy security in East Asia under the context of the unfolding struggle of the major powers in this region for priority access to energy sources from Russia, the Middle East and fields in the East China and South China seas. The problems of bilateral and multilateral energy cooperation, ways of its institutionalization in the context of the prospects of the formation of a common regionwide energy space are depicted in this article. The authors note that the territorial disputes between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands, as well as the disputes over the ownership of the Paracel Islands, which have repeatedly led the countries of East Asia to the brink of a military confrontation, have a strong natural resources background, because either there are large deposits of hydrocarbons, or there are strategically important ways of transporting oil and gas from the Middle East. The confrontation between China and Japan, the world largest economies and powerful military powers at the same time the countries with lack of oil and gas reserves and that have been experiencing a severe shortage of this strategically important for the functioning of their industry natural resources for the last two decades represents grave danger. The current military and political situation between China and Japan, characterized by the intensification of their struggle for regional leadership and often accompanied by the manifestation of force, calls for intensified efforts of the two governments to establish political cooperation and to reach compromise solutions. According to the authors, the common interests of energy security and stable development of energy cooperation in East Asia suggest the creation of responsible structural department within the existing regional integration associations that would directly deal with energy issues and would allow their depoliticization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the actual problem of territorial disputes between China and Japan, as well as the role of the two countries in the settlement of the "Taiwan problem". In recent years, there has been a rapid growth of contradictions and negative trends in Sino-Japanese relations, periodically exacerbated by the unraveling conflict around the Senkaku Islands, processes of general militarization of the region, including the activation of military cooperation between Japan, the United States and Taiwan. Against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in bilateral relations, the parties are lesser hiding their claims for dominance in East Asia, in general, and for their influence in individual countries. The different understanding of the future of the region by the political leadership of the two countries, the lack of readiness for restraint in the implementation of their maritime strategies, draws the attention of the "third force", that is the USA, which pursues the goal of maintaining military domination in the Asia-Pacific Region, at the present stage involving the deployment of anti-missile systems against China and Russia. The authors carefully analyze the general historical context of the territorial conflicts of China and Japan, dating back to the period of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945 and to the times of World War II, emphasizing their understanding in the broad public circles of the two countries. The growing contradictions between Japan and China and the readiness of the parties to use military force for defending their interests lead to a military and political crisis in the region, the formation of hostile blocs and the practice of dividing spheres of influence. The study notes that historical reconciliation, the recognition of the outcomes of the Second World War and the willingness of the parties to seek for a compromise solution to delineate the water area of the East China Sea, determine the sea zones of "economic interests", search for a common approach to cooperation with Taiwan, the restraining of the USA influence on regional processes are an integral part of the normalization of Japanese-Chinese relations and a guarantee of preventing a war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the problem of militarization in the East Asian region in the context of the unfolding crisis in Japan-China relations. Numerous territorial disputes between China and Japan and other countries in East Asia being divided into two hostile sides in the recent past, the complicated history of the last century along with innumerable military conflicts, the deficiency of effectively operating security organizations in this region, the inequality of economic development between countries, all these factors in the combination with active military policy of the United States and Russia entered a new era of global confrontation, cause conflicts and contradictions of interstate relations in this region. According to the authors, the majority of Asian Pacific countries held a steady course for the accelerated strengthening of the military capability of national armies, and the dominant principle of interstate relations was the ancient Roman principle: "Wish for peace - be prepared for war". A special place in the study was given to compare the military capability of the great powers of East Asia and military plans of the United States. The US determination to establish the missile defense system in East Asia including Taiwan and South Korea in addition to Japan causes an extremely negative reaction in China, Russia and North Korea and their readiness to resume alliance of the Cold war period, and it will provoke a new "arms race" between the major regional powers. The authors note that all the sides have to develop multilateral directions of cooperation in security and defense field and to sign a number of agreements on strategic arms restriction and disarmament; Japan should refuse to pursue U.S. policy, less appropriate to Japanese interests; and China should reduce the sharpness of historically strong anti-Japanese rhetoric and adopt a more compromising stance on territorial issues to overcome the precritical situation. In the modern era, both countries have a special role in preventing a new Cold war, because its resumption will change precisely East Asia into the main arena of rivalry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the topical issue of the struggle between China and Japan for political and economic influence over the Korean peninsula in the modern era. After the division of Korea into two hostile states in the middle of 1950-s, the struggle of world powers for influence over the peninsula has not ceased for nearly 70 years. In recent decades, in addition to the traditional actors as the United States and Russia China which is rapidly gaining power has joined the struggle. In response to the China's business economic penetration into the region and the increasingly harsh military and political rhetoric of Beijing, Japan seeks to pursue a political-military course more independent from the United States and rigid against China, abandoning its peaceful foreign policy and military doctrine, thus provoking North Korea and China to more militarization in the view of the memories of the Japanese occupation of their territories during World War II, simultaneously fueling distrust in Japanese initiatives in both South Korea and the United States. At the present stage the development of relations in the geopolitical triangle of China-Japan-Korea is characterized by a number of factors that can be divided into two main topics: military-political settlement on the Korean peninsula and economic dialogue among China, Japan and South Korea on economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. The intertwining of the economic interests of the countries in the region, which is gradually becoming the new center of the world economy, unsettled historical and territorial disputes, bloc mentality that has survived here, despite the end of the Cold War, forms a complex set of contradictions. North Korea's development of nuclear weapon and the numerous tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles, combined with the constant military exercises of the United States, Japan and South Korea at the borders of North Korea, backed by the bellicose rhetoric of DPRK's leader Kim Jong-un and the administration of new US president, D. Trump, give the old conflicts a new dimension, threatening to turn into a large-scale war in the region and plunge the world into a "nuclear apocalypse". According to the authors, under these conditions, the hopes of the Korean people for reunification are pushed to the "second place", but the new China's initiatives supported by Russia and the pragmatic approach of the Japanese leadership to the issues of preserving peace and common interaction in the region can reduce tension, prevent negative scenarios and direct development of the situation in a constructive direction, once again bringing the topic of economic cooperation to the forefront. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the urgent problem of economic cooperation between China and Japan in the era of the "World Financial Crisis". The global economic crisis of 2008, which became a powerful blow for the capitalist world since the Great Depression and inflicted a heavy blow on the economies of the United States and Western Europe, did not have such a strong impact on East Asia, China and even Japan, despite their greater involvement in the world financial and economic system. It confirmed the fact that the center of the world economy, its core, the core of global growth and development has been gradually moving to East Asia whose largest economies are Chinese and Japanese ones. Political relations between the two countries have been extremely tense over the past more than a hundred years, constantly escalating into open clashes, but it did not prevent them from finding mutually beneficial economic cooperation and jointly resisting the challenges of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. Over time, Japan became the second-third most important trading partner of China, China became Japan's first partner. Currently Japan-China economic cooperation is increasingly exposed to political factors. The geopolitical clash of the two countries threatens to violate close industrial cooperation and scale down the mutual trade. Trade wars between China and Japan affect all new spheres. The global financial crisis has become a catalyst for the divergence of foreign economic strategies between the two countries reinforcing the desire of the parties to form a single center for the region's economic development around themselves, institutionalizing and consolidating their economic power in various regional integration structures. China and Japan have been arguing for years around the format of the East Asian community and the conditions for the creation of a free trade zone in the region. The economic competition of the two countries, which started in the early 2000s, is gradually coming to an end with China's convincing victory, but in the authors' opinion, its moving from the economic plane to the political struggle can radically change this trend due to the US siding with Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the topical problem of the Russian Federation foreign policy in the Far East transformation in recent decades. Traditionally, the region is a sphere of Russia's special interests. The collapse of the Soviet Union marked a shift in the balance of power in it towards the US-Japanese alliance and the new powers have emerged claiming a leading place, it is primarily China. In the 21st century, Russia is gradually returning to regional affairs as an active actor, focusing its efforts not on promoting military interests, as it was during the Cold War, but on economic interaction. American interference in the regional affairs and desire of the American elite to undermine the military power of Russia and China, the sharp deterioration of Japan-China relations and the Russian-American global confrontation leave their imprint on Russia's policy in the Far East. One of the scenarios for the further development of the situation is the slow but consistent military-political confrontation between the continental powers Russia and China, on the one hand, and sea powers as Japan and the United States on the other. A special place in Russia's foreign policy strategy is the sphere of energy security and energy cooperation with China, Japan and South Korea. The energy cooperation of the parties (through energy supplies and ensuring the security of their transportation routes) has great prospects for the development of region-wide economic processes and the establishment of strategic interaction at both the bilateral and multilateral levels. In the opinion of the authors, Russia's desire to develop a universal concept for the development of the APR, with the support of many Russian initiatives to de-escalate tensions in the Far East's hot beds of tension from China, allows Russia to expect to become the main conciliatory force in the region in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the pressing issue of the transformation of China's and Japan's foreign policy strategies in East Asia in recent years. The main feature of these countries' policies in the region is the domination of the economic approaches as the basis for the practical implementation of the "soft power" concept. However, the two countries do not give up the military representative acts, particularly with the use of the navy in order to demonstrate the national military might and readiness to defend their political interests through military means. China's tactic is to switch the consideration of a number of problematic issues with other countries in the region from the multilateral level to the bilateral one. Japan, rapidly losing the position of the centre of the region's economic development, tends in its foreign policy to increasingly rely on the US support and it is modernizing its army at a quick rate, preparing for a military confrontation with China. Japan and the United States are increasingly striving to create the "anti-Chinese coalition" in the Asia-Pacific region with the prospect of its institutional design within the framework of the military-political organization of NATO type. In this regard, China increasingly opposes their policies at all levels, sparing no effort and money to find new allies, such as South Korea, as well as trying to improve its relations with Taiwan. In spite of the political differences, China and Japan increase their economic cooperation and deepen economic interdependence. In the context of enhancing economic cooperation and simultaneous strengthening of the military-political confrontation between China and Japan, the further development of the Sino-Japanese relations is becoming a key issue for the economic and military security of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]