fish”and after defeating his opponents, he got elected and came to form a cabinet. That serves to show right now that in Japanese political area, there is an urgent need to build up a political setup in which the ruling party has to soothe the feelings of animosity inside the party and conduct cooperation with parties other than his own. In the diplomatic field, he will go on with the basic policy that highlights the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance and the need to “ drag in the U.S. to resist China” . However, frequent changes in Japanese government in recent years have greatly weakened dialogue mechanism between the U.S. and Japan. Its China policy will be an important element that determines its success or failure, which will cause some misgivings among its Asian countries in its periphery diplomacy. As economic problems at home are piling up like a mountain, they cannot be solved easily. Ferocious rivalries between and among the parties inside and outside the government for their selfish interests will not come to an end and will surely result in more and more antipathy from the Japan people. 11.Following the Current Trend of Development in the South China Sea Issue and Finding Action Guidelines to Address it, by Han Ning, a doctoral student at the Institute of International Strategic Studies with the Central Party School. As all the interested parties along the peripheries of the South China Sea (SCS continue to intensify and expand their bid for vested interests in this disputed sea area, importance of the South China Sea to upgrade constantly China’ s strategic position has become apparent. With the U.S. and other outside — 72 —

major powers taking an active part in the region, the South China Sea issue has taken on a development trend of a critical nature. In recent years, changes in international strategic environment and in the SCS surroundings areas have brought about quite a number of unfavorable elements. As a result, China needs to take the whole interests of peaceful development in hand and tries to maintain stability in the South China Sea situation. By basing on the belief that the sovereignty of the territories concerned belongs to China and advocating cooperation and management, China should try to seek peaceful settlement of the issue by means of setting up relevant control and management

mechanisms as well. 12. An Analysis of the New Changes in the Middle Ease Setup, by Gao Zugui, a researcher at the Institute Peace of International Strategic Studies with the Central Party School, a doctoral tutor and a guest researcher of “ and Development” . Sweeping changes in the Middle East that took place at the end of 2010 and have been going on up since have drawn the Middle East into a new period of turbulence, transformation and remoulding. The Islamist elements took advantage of the situation to expand their political influences. Changes have occurred by varying degrees in most of the Middle Eastern Countries, providing them with a wider space for expansion. At the same time, increase in the political influences of those forces has also made profound impact on the political ecology in various countries in the region. In the face of the change, the main regional mechanisms have seen some getting weaker and some going stronger. The league of Arab States has been weakened; the Gulf Cooperation Council is expanding while the African Union is in the state of ascendancy. Noticeable changes have also taken place to the external environments of the major powers in the region. Turkey has improved its external environment; Iran is confronted with a growing complexity in the regional environment while Israel ’ s security situation is getting worse. 13. “ The lost 10 Years” : A Critique of the Failure in the U.S. Middle East Strategy, by Lin Haihong(F., a lecturer at the College of Marxism with China University of Political Science and Law. The 9/11 event of 2011 considerably changed the direction of international relations theory in the U.S. with the theory of “ conflict of civilizations” as its foreign policy guidelines, the U.S. launched two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in order to Democratic transformation”of the Middle East. Originally the contradictions between the U. promote a policy of “ S. and the Islamic world were those of political and economic nature created by the disparities between the rich and poor under the U.S.-led economic order after the end of WWII. However, by proceedings from an idealistic way of thinking and departing from the U.S. national interests, the U.S. neo-conservatism undertook what was beyond its power to push forward “ the greater Middle East democracy” , thus making the U.S. got lost in a tenyear war of attrition and reducing the

Middle East setup into a functional disorder. But in fact that might turn out to be a period for the U.S. to further consolidate its footprint in the Middle East. After President Barack Obama came into office, even though he made it clear that he would forsake the concept of “ conflict of civilizations” in the Bush era and tried to ease anti-American sentiments from the Islamic world, he still can hardly be detached from the hard reality in the Middle East. Residual effects brought about by a 10-year-long erroneous line will not be healed and remedied by the “ smart foreign policy”within a short period of time. — 73 —