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Dr. Paul Sracic gives talk about international dispute
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Youngstown State University's Paul Sracic gave a presentation at the Poland library about a dispute over a group of islands between Japan and China.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Area residents who keep up on international politics were able to come to the Poland library on Oct. 9 and hear a presentation by Paul Sracic about the dispute between Japan, China and South Korea.
“There’s a dispute about a number of islands in that region that could break out into a hot war between some of the largest economies in the world,” he said. “This is something that we’re not paying that much attention to in the United States, but it’s very important both for the United States and these very important economies.”
Sracic has a Ph.D in political science from Rutgers and has been at Youngstown State University since 1992, where he is the chair of the Department of Politics and International Relations. He earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 2009 at the University of Tokyo, spending a year living in Japan. He’s made four trips to Japan since, including being a guest to the prime minister’s office and touring the areas that were hit by the tsunami. He most recently has been giving talks in South Korea.
Sracic said the dispute between the countries goes back about five years.
“It really started in 2009, 2010,” he said. “What happened was a Chinese fishing boat rammed a Japanese Coast Guard boat right off the [Senkaku] islands. That area’s claimed by Japan, but it’s disputed. China claims it also owns them. When the captain of the fishing boat was arrested and brought to Tokyo, it caused an international incident between Japan and China.
“The whole thing picked up speed around 2012 when Japan essentially bought the islands from their private Japanese owners. The Chinese claimed this was nationalizing the islands and changing the status quo when they sort of agreed to disagree on who owned the islands.”
Sracic said it was at that point that the United States got involved in the dispute.
“We have a mutual defense treaty with Japan and President Obama said last year that that treaty covers the Senkaku Islands,” he said. “Some people argue that if China tried to occupy the islands, we would be required to defend Japan under the treaty which would get us into a war with China, therefore you’d have a war between the first-, second- and third-largest economies in the world. It would create a worldwide depression as well as risking World War III.”
Sracic also spoke of a dispute over islands between Japan and South Korea. He said that issue shouldn’t end up in a fight but has strained the relationship between Japan and South Korea and pushed South Korea more toward China. He said the United States wants Japan and South Korea united against China.
“People have proposed international forums to try and resolve it,” Sracic said of the disputes. “So far, most of the parties don’t seem willing. Japan would probably be willing to go to international arbitration with South Korea but not with China. China is basically refusing to go to international arbitration with Japan, also.
“They all consider these islands theirs. It’s like if somebody claimed Florida and told us we had to go to international arbitration over who owns Florida, we would refuse. That’s the way they feel about these islands.”
Sracic added that there has been some outreach recently between the three countries to try and resolve the issues.