Just as an international treaty on the social responsibility of multinational corporations is being negotiated at the United Nations, Marieke Louis reveals how corporations are involved in the arenas of global governance, and highlights the ambivalent relationships between states and multinational corporations.
In February 2016, South Korea decided to close the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in protest against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Previously, it had not framed denuclearisation as a prerequisite for collaboration between the two Koreas – a change of course that may prove ill advised.
As China’s power increases, Japan is moving closer to other Asian countries. This return to Asia is not univocal, and the newly elected Democratic Party is not in a position to change the direction of Japanese foreign policy.
Where will the borders of the East Asian community end up? Australia is trying to attach itself to this evolving project but, in the eyes of its Asian partners, its western inheritance keeps it on the fringes rather than at the core of the project.
The Middle East has become the theater of a generalized “politics of error.” Particularly since 9/11, errors of comprehension have intertwined with errors of calculation in ways that destabilize the regional system and make for an even more uncertain future.
