ABOUT GLOBAL COMMONS
Global commons is a concept to understand commons which are not limited to local or national boundaries. Commons, in general, provide public goods which are non-exclusive and non-discriminately but are easily exploited by free riders who only enjoy the fruits of commons but avoid responsibility as a member of community. In fact, studies of commons have often been associated with studies of tragedy of commons. Scholars have studied global agenda such as climate change or water resource management by elaborating the concepts of global commons as well as its tragedy.
Japan and other countries along the Pacific Rim have been exploring global commons especially after the Cold War while they have observed a changing American presence as well as the rise of China. Gravity of regions is always changing, while the countries have sought for economic prosperity and peace through widening and deepening regional integration to maintain the commons shared by themselves. While the APEC, the first attempt to enhance the economic prosperity along the Pacific Rim, faced walls of protectionism of member countries in the middle of the 1990s, the ASEAN, the only stable regional cooperative entity, invited key East Asian countries to their annual meeting and institutionalized the ASEAN Plus Three (APT), despite, or rather because of a setback caused by the financial crisis in the late 1990s. Several East Asian countries however apparently shifted their focus of economic diplomacy from the APT, a fragile symbol of regional integration in East Asia, to Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) with the countries along the Pacific Rim and their efforts for security from ARF, or the only regional forum covering most of the major players in Pacific Rim, to traditional bilateral security alliances with the United States (China at the same time began to seek for a new type relations of the superpowers with the US). Meanwhile the United States led by President Barak Obama proclaimed its re-balance to state that the U.S. remains to play a significant role as one of the Pacific nations.
The conference considers possibility of continuous endeavor to maintain the global commons in this dynamic region. It will adopt multi-disciplinary approaches to consider the various topics along the line of the following three broad concerns. First, we reconsider the concept of global commons mainly with experts of philosophy, religions, and history. While the conventional knowledge on global commons have emerged based on European philosophy and often emphasized the tragedy of commons as a failure of collective actions over the pubic goods, we revisit the concepts considering rich philosophical as well as religious tradition in Asia where people have often emphasized communal identities as well as individual rights.
Second, we study dynamic synergy of western concept and various local practices in Asia. It’s been a while since several scholars have studied variety of capitalism in Europe and various relations of state and market in fast growing East Asia. We still find gaps to fill however, especially in the roles of state and society. We therefore consider possibility of variety of politico-economic order composed of state, market, and society. One of the challenge for us here is to study possible variety of democracy in Asia. Besides, we also address possibility to widen and deepen economic integration of regional economies paying much attention to the various existing and possible trade agreements among the economies in Asia-Pacific and to the accelerating integration of ASEAN economy in 2015.
Third, we should consider public goods such as peace and order to maintain the global commons in Asia Pacific. Several countries facing the West Philippine Sea or East China Sea, however, share their concerns about adventurous activities of the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China these days. We are also observing tensions among Japan, China, and South Korea, as if we lived in the 19th Century. Besides, several Southeast Asian countries have faced internal rebellions or separatist movements which have already been the concerns of not only their own governments but also neighboring countries and international organizations.
Through a thorough study of various topics with leading figures from all over the field of study and region, this study aims not only at enhancing our knowledge on the global commons but at generating mutual understanding of the intellectuals who are also playing significant roles in community building in respective fields and regions.
