Document Type : Research Paper
Author
The Author in Charge; PhD International Relation, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Japan’s Silk Road Diplomacy, introduced in 1997, is considered as the first formal and obvious use of the Silk Road metaphor by a Post-Soviet States in order for engaging with Central Asian societies. Although the narrative discourse of Japan's Silk Road diplomacy could contribute to the prompt development of Tokyo’s diplomacy in Central Asia, it has stagnated -but not declined- since reaching its peak in 2006. This paper is aimed to explore the evolutionary process of the narration of Japan’s Silk Road policy in Central Asia and its relationship with the Silk Road Economic Belt (the continental part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative). The question addressed here is: “What rule governs the Japan-China Silk Road game in Central Asia, and why?” The initial response is that “Since japan has shifted its security and infrastructural priorities toward South and Southeast Asia and due to the existence of geopolitical bottlenecks in connecting this country to Central Asia, Tokyo's approach to the Silk Road Economic Belt is gradually changed from non-participation to conditional interaction in a non-zero-sum game”. The findings of this paper, fulfilled through applying an inductive reasoning method and modifying the above hypothesis, show that the interaction between the Silk Road narrations of Japan and China in Central Asia has never been hostile and has fluctuated between minimal participation and conditional/multilateral interaction. However, the conflict between the two mentioned different discourses based on the result of the zero-sum game in Indo-Pacific has moved towards China's Maritime Silk Road Initiative and Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific Initiative.
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