• Acta Via Serica
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-48
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• 2018

The Silk Road usually implies a network of trade and communications that stretched from east to west and connected China and the countries of the Far East via Central Asia and the Middle East to the eastern Mediterranean, or through the northern coast of the Caspian Sea and the Volga basin to the Black Sea coast. However, at certain historical stages, a network of maritime and overland routes stretching from north to south, commonly called the Volga-Caspian trade route, also played a significant role in international trade and cultural contacts. The geopolitical realities of the early Middle Ages relating to the relationship of Byzantium, the Sassanid Empire, and the West Turkic Khaganate, the advance of the Arab Caliphate to the north, the spread of Islam in the Volga region, the glories and fall of the Khazar State, and the Scandinavian campaigns in the Caucasus, closely intertwined with the history of transport and communications connecting the north and south through the Volga-Caspian route. In a later era, the interests of the Mongolian Uluses, and then the political and economic aspirations of the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid State, and Russia, collided or combined on these routes. The article discusses trade contacts existing between the north and the south in the 15th and first half of the 17th century along the routes on the western coast of the Caspian Sea.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.77-96
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• 2019

Logistics and transportation are increasingly playing a crucial role in international trade relations. Logistics services provide sectoral connections within the local economy. The efficient logistics services facilitate the flow of products; besides ensuring safety and speed of movement, they can reduce the cost of cross-border trade. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) evaluates the efficiency of customs, quality of transportation service, and infrastructure for overland and maritime transport in each country it covers. The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of the various LPI indicators of Korea's trading partners. The impact of LPI on trade varies according to the income level of the trading partners. The results show that an improvement in any of the components of the LPI can lead to significant growth in a country's trade flow. Exports to Korea will increase as the LPI of the trading partner country is higher. This index has a greater impact on the exports of low-income countries.

• Journal of East-Asian Urban History
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.57-82
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• 2021

This article examines the urban example of Batu Sawar which served as the capital of the Johor kingdom between 1587 and circa 1615. Around the middle of the eighteenth-century European reference works continued to describe Batu Sawar as the capital of Johor, even though the city had long ceased to serve as a trading center, let alone as Johor's capital, and probably no longer existed. Such observations raise the question of urban impermanence-the transience of sizeable settlements with reference to the Malay Archipelago. Two overarching questions form the backbone of the investigation: First, why did Batu Sawar rise as a regional trading center, and second, what are the reasons that contributed to its decline? Batu Sawar's fate was sealed by a combination of factors that included poor defenses, multiple external shocks, destruction by fire, court politics and rivalry between the early colonial powers.

• Strategy21
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• s.41
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• pp.174-207
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• 2017

Human history shows diverse strategies for survival and prosperity. This study introduces the concept of the expansion of wealth as a key to explain choice and behavior of political entities. American scholar, -Bruce Bueno de Mesquita-, offers theoretical grounds for this concept in that the cores of selectorate theory is settled. The political entity consists of two groups, -the winning coalition that has power to replace leader and non-winning coalition that has not. Leaders implement policies serving for the welfare of winning coalition in return for their loyalty. Both internal problems caused by demographic changes and external ones of climate changes, epidemic disease, or invasion compel leader and winning coalition to adopt policies of expansion that they believe may lead to the acquisition of wealth needed to counter those problems. The process starts by occupying one spot where other entities reside and then connecting it to its own. The line between spots functions as a foothold to form a new line to other spots. By repeating this process, a space is created in which new laws and orders are instated. In the early stage of expansion, war is hardly avoidable. Once finished successfully, the political circumstance tilts to encourage economic activities in order to generate national revenues to strengthen political power of winning coalition. However, as scale of economic activities grows, so does political power of civic classes in production and trade. To gain financial support required to run the political entity, delegation of power or bestowing autonomy to non-winning coalition is inevitable. Thus, expansion is not the ultimate solution, only to prolong the political survival if succeed. Maritime power came to attractive option when overland expansion had become obstructed. It offered much greater advantages in terms of political risks and financial burdens in exploring new regions of precious commodities than overland expansion. Each political entity around world have been, for the first time in human history, connected by maritime means since 15th century. It is worthy of noting that land conditions propelled people out to sea. Political and economic situations created opportunities to exploit geographical position in pursuit of wealth. In the 21st century, we witness the operation of international winning coalition that presides over the rules of expansion. Competing for market is synonymous to the expansion in this era, the cause and aim of it has not been changed though. Energy and dollars are key factors of expansion since the end of the 2nd world war. No matter what the forms and conditions change, naval power is still the most relevant means for expansion as it retains unique characters of maneuver, flexibility, continuity, display and projection of power. The strategy for using naval power should be in line with two different approaches for expansion: Approaches to the international winning coalition by making contribution to world order, and approaches to the non-international winning coalition by enhancing military diplomatic activities. The former will serve our share of winning coalition while the latter will open chances to acquire further prosperity.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.199-211
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• 2018

Ever since Korea was geopolitically divided into North and South Korea in the 1940s, South Korea has depended on maritime transportation for global trade and logistics. Now, however, South Korea is preparing to develop a new global route for trans-Eurasia logistics passing through North Korea. Even though there are difficulties to overcome, South Korea expects that a new overland route, shorter than the existing seaways in the Europe-Asia section, will bring more frequent trade with more rapid and cost-effective logistics services in the future. Related to this issue, this study aims to proactively analyze dynamic logistics changes in South Korea when a trans-Korea railway is developed and linked with the trans-China railway and the trans-Siberian railway. This study employed a system dynamics simulation approach to model the logistics system in South Korea. The simulation results indicated that the traffic of the Uiwang inland container depot near the capital area may increase but the traffic of the Port of Busan may decrease. With supplementary research, consequently, follow-up studies on adjusting the traffic capacity in Korea are required to attain successful trans-Eurasia logistics by rail.