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The landmark peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia brokered by China has ended years of hostility between the two regional arch-rivals. The peace agreement is expected to ease the regional tension and bring peace and stability. The warming up of relations may also lead to the end of proxy wars in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. China’s emergence as a nonhegemonic and reliable extra-regional actor/guarantor would stabilise the regional security environment. This development directly impacts Pakistan as it has good relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China. The peace agreement holds great prospects for Pakistan through investment, trade, joint production, corridor connectivity and joint consortium. However, while the prospects are bright, there are many challenges to harness these opportunities fully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers at home and abroad have concentrated their attention on two aspects of the treaties: their unequal nature and the change of trade regulations. That is to say, the focus of attention has been on the political and economic effects rather than the social influences of the treaties from the perspective of a peripheral society. The connection between China and the West after their collisions in the modern age was the establishment of diplomatic relations and the flow of goods and people. It is important for us to put our emphasis on the establishment of port cities and a peripheral society between China and foreign countries as they were the appeals of "Nanjing Treaty" and a series of other treaties. Therefore, a shift in research perspective is necessary. This paper starts from an analysis of the relationship between the internal state and the coastal society within China, the diplomatic relations between China and foreign countries, and the problems in those relations. This reexamination of the treaty negotiations and their connotation following the Opium War will lead to a deeper understanding of "Nanjing Treaty," of the appeals and concerns of both parties of the negotiations, and of the influences of this series of treaties on the Chinese society and on the relationship between the state and the society. The direct cause of the Opium War was the trouble in trade and diplomatic mechanisms between China and the UK. One major problem was that in spite of the huge trade volumes between the two countries, their transaction had been monopolized by the East India Company and the Hong Merchants of Canton, impeding the formation of port cities and a mature coastal society. This situation seriously limited the sales of British products in China, causing trade imbalance and the opium trade thereafter. In the meantime, the conflicts between the royal court and the peripheral coastal society within China since the Ming and Qing dynasties had resulted in many problems such as the undeveloped coastal society, the barriers between China and foreign countries and the lack of mutual trust between the dynasty government and the coastal society, which even caused a traitor panic on a large scale during the Opium War. Therefore, this series of treaties and trade regulations signed after the Opium War, mainly expressing the demands of Britain, America and France, etc., were focused on the following targets: clearing away the trade barrier between China and other countries, breaking the Hong Merchants' monopolies and setting up the so-called free trade. In other words, it was necessary to build unrestricted social communications and employment relations between China and other countries and to form a peripheral port society in order to expand trade space and seek commercial profits. However, the rulers of the Qing dynasty were only concerned about the safety of their regime and the maintenance of a relative separation between the Chinese society and foreign countries. Therefore, in the course of the negotiations, China did her best to meet the foreigners' demands on trade and tax, but had a fierce argument with Britain and France on the two issues of releasing traitors by publishing Tenghuang and the free propagation of Catholicism in China. The purpose of the argument was to prevent the emergence of a Sino-foreign hybrid peripheral society. This is the key point of this series of treaties and also the concern of both parties of the negotiation. Previous researches have ignored this aspect of the treaties, which this paper attempts to cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents the paper titled Article Eight of the League of Nations Covenant and the Washington Conference presented by C. B. Ames at the Third Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association at Norman, Oklahoma on March 23, 1922. It took the World War to make the world want peace. It destroyed half the wealth of Europe. It left many nations groveling on the ground. When it was over the thoughts of men turned to peace. For the first time in history there seemed to be a universal desire for permanent peace and greater progress has been made since the war toward achieving this desire than in all the ages of the past. Three stages of this progress stand out as paramount. The first and by far the most important is the League of Nations. The second great step toward permanent peace is the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice. The third great step towards peace is the series of treaties which have been proposed by the Washington Conference. The U.S. and Japan negotiated a separate treaty relative to the island of Yap by which our rights in that island are made substantially equal to those of Japan under its mandate and by which Japan agrees to send to the U.S. annually a copy of the report of its mandate which it is required to file with the League of Nations. Japan and China negotiated a separate treaty relative to the province of Shantung which Japan had wrested from Germany and which was left in the possession of Japan by the Treaty of Versailles.

In Taiwan's 2008 presidential election, both candidates advocated signing a peace agreement with China, and Chinese leaders have also expressed interest in reaching such an agreement. Although substantial obstacles remain in the way of a cross-strait peace agreement, this increased interest on both sides of the Taiwan Strait suggests that a closer examination of an agreement's possible dimensions and consequences is warranted. This analysis considers what an agreement might look like, whether and how it might be effective in reducing the possibility of cross-strait military conflict, the relevant barriers to an agreement, and whether an agreement--if reached--would be likely to endure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2008, Japanese and Chinese media reported that a break-through had been reached in the four-and-a-half year Chunxiao gas dispute. Rumours that an agreement was imminent had been circulating since early 2008 and had gained momentum during Hu fin tao's historic visit to Japan in May. The breakthrough followed eleven rounds of director-general level discussions, and several ministerial and executive level meetings. The elite commitment to arrive at a consensus emerged after a period of significant tension in the bilateral relationship. Given this turn around in bilateral relations, the process by which the "new consensus" emerged merits investigation as it may hold lessons for Sino-Japanese relations as a whole. In an effort to explain the circumstances of the June agreement and analyse what lessons it holds for the Sino-Japanese relationship, this article is divided into three sections. The first section explores the background of the Chunxiao gas dispute in an effort to understand what is at stake in the dispute and the barriers to compromise. The second section analyses the breakthrough in June. The final section discusses the prospects and barriers to future cooperation. The article concludes with an assessment of what lessons can be learned from the agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on a study on the four-party peace talks among the United States (US), China, North Korea and South Korea. Information on the origin of engagement between US and North Korea; Complications of the peace talks; Objective of the peace talks.