Waseda University Global COE Program,‘Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration’Investigative Research Assistance Achievement Report

Affiliation GSAPS / GIARIItinerary

Year

D2

2010/ 2/ 15/ ～ 2010/ 2/ 21/

Name Lee, Alice Park(Month/Date/Year)

Destination (Name of city and country)Monterey and New Orleans, USA

Research objectives
To attend ISA 51st Annual Convention in New Orleans, where scholars of different discipline inInternational Relations get together from all over the world and make fruitful discussion on varioustopics.

To visit Monterey Institute of International Studies, and attended one class about East Asian
diplomacy. There I was able to practice how to present my topic effectively to professors andstudents in the institute.

As a presenter for ISA, in order to share my research progress with experienced scholars who havethe same research interest.

As a researcher of environmental governance (which is often discussed in various disciplines) tomeet and discuss with scholars who are doing the research from different disciplines.

Research project
Asian countries are reluctant to enforce environmental regulations to the region through Asian regional
environmental institutions. However, countries have high motivation to join such institutions from early
1990s. Motivation of Asian countries to participate in transnational networks can be an important factor to
support regional integration. Asian countries are motivated more than seeking merely to addressenvironmental issues. Rather, regional characteristics are an equally if not more important factor inregional environmental cooperation.
The motivation to join in environmental institutions was studies from both neoclassical and institutional
perspective. Many different components in motivation were investigated, and the challenge for Asian
environmental institutions is to find collective interest in environmental improvement. This researchcontrasts European and Asian cases to highlight the challenges in motivation that Asian institutions needto overcome. A comprehensive set of background data of several European and Asian environmentalinstitutions was analyzed.

Achievement
There were two parts in the research activities: one was making presentation in Monterey Institutes ofInternational Study, and the other was making presentation in the panel of “Regional Cooperation in East
Asia: Theory and Practice in Traditional and Non-Traditional Security” in ISA 51st Annual Convention atNew Orleans from February 17th to 20th.
Discussing with students who are studying about Asian community in USA was an interesting experience.
Since it was before going to New Orleans for ISA Annual Convention, I could have improved thepresentation skills and the way of express my idea with PPT base on American style.
ISA Annual Convention was one of the biggest events for people who are studying about International
Relations. It was surprising for me to meet many young and senior scholars that I have discussed in 2009
Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. Many of themfound this time that their comments at that time were very useful for my progress. Some of them
introduced me some other conferences that is related with our research interest, and others told me someprevious studies that they could not told me last time in Amsterdam. I noticed how important and valuableasset to have stewardship with peoples in the same research field with me. I am expecting to havediscussion again with them when they visit Nagoya this year to participate COP10.
Throughout attending many other presentations on environmental cooperation and regional integration, I
could find where my research can make profess. Many researches on Asian regional environmentalcooperation were making the discussion from the common aspects of implementing international idea toregional and national level as institutional effectiveness. On the other hands, western cases now werefocusing on national policy integration issues as well. It is obvious that western cases of concerning
national environmental policy integration (for example, integration between climate change policy andbiodiversity policy, etc.) is not exactly same case with Asian society, however, I could find one important
issues for future study that consider regional characteristics in the discussion of Asian regional
environmental cooperation: ‘policy integration of environment and development planning under national
level in Asian countries’.

Confirmed by person in charge of project promotion (signature and seal)
Academic Adviser
Sub Adviser(Note: please write within a length of two A4 pages. Space for each item can be changed tosuit.)