Special Forum

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"Assessing the First Two Years of the Abe Administration"

Feb 05,2015 Special Forum

Abe Shinzo: Japan’s Most Consequential Prime Minister since Yoshida Shigeru

Introduction to Special Forum Abe Shinzo: Japan’s Most Consequential Prime Minister since Yoshida Shigeru   The year 2015 promises to be a milestone in Japan’s transition from a defeated state remaining on the defensive over its history with a low strategic profile, to a proud and proactive force for the reorganization of Asia within the US-led international community. Abe Shinzo i..

Editorial Staff
Abenomics , comfort women , commemorations , Shinzo Abe , TPP , Yasukuni Shrine
Feb 05,2015 Special Forum

Abe Unleashed? Hardly

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his LDP chalked up a third consecutive election victory and extended their hold on the Diet for two more years with a convincing win in the snap Lower House election held in late December. While the victory consolidates the LDP’s grip on power and confirms that Abe is the real leader of the party—for now—, it is hard to call the results a mandate for hi..

Brad Glosserman
Abenomics , collective self-defense , Japan-US alliance , nuclear policy , Shinzo Abe , Territorial Disputes

Open Forum

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Feb 10,2015 Open Forum

Synopsis of Five-University Collaboration, Dec. 2014

Agenda: Five University Collaboration on East Asia Security Conflict & Cooperation File Download In mid-December, faculty and graduate students at five universities in five countries met again to exchange views on the state of security in East Asia. Prior conferences had produced thoughtful, constructive exchanges, but no reports were circulated on what they covered and how they served to st..

Editorial Staff
Obama-Xi Summit , Six-Party Talks , TPP , Trustpolitik
Feb 16,2015 Open Forum

Making Sense of the Russo-North Korean Rapprochement

Although the six-party process about North Korean nuclearization is moribund if not dead, ongoing informal discussions among those parties are robust and ever evolving. Because these multi-party relationships are so protean, they force us to devise an analytic framework for them. After all, these talks are about much more than Korean denuclearization. They represent an embryonic or miniature versi..

Stephen Blank
Ostpolitik , pivot to Asia , rapprochement , Ukraine
Feb 16,2015 Open Forum

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik 1 On October 18, 2013, at an international conference on Eurasian cooperation in Seoul, Park Geun-hye proposed the “Eurasia Initiative.” Under the watchwords of “one continent, creative continent, and peaceful continent,” the initiative projects a unified system of transport, energy, and trade networks across ..

Kim Taehwan*
Eurasia Initiative , NAPCI , National security , Nordpolitik , pivot state , Regionalism , trust-building

National Commentaries

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"India-US relations:
Developments from the Fall and Winter of 2014 to the 2015 Modi-Obama Summit"

Feb 10,2015 National Commentaries

A US Perspective

"India-US relations:Developments from the Fall and Winter of 2014 to the 2015 Modi-Obama Summit"   A Successful Summit Revives US-India Strategic Partnership   In the late 1990s, after decades of geopolitical alienation during and the Cold War, President Bill Clinton called America and India “natural allies.” In the 2000s, the George W. Bush administration had b..

Daniel Twining
Balancing China , Economic Relations , Indo-US relations , Republic Day parade
Feb 10,2015 National Commentaries

A Japanese Perspective

"The India-Japan Special Global Partnership and the United States"   On the Republic Day of India, January 26, 2015, the Embassy of India in Tokyo hosted a national day reception at Hotel Okura Tokyo. Hundreds of people paid their respects to the ambassador and expressed friendship toward India. A similarly large crowd gathered at the same event last year, which coincided with P..

Takenaka Chiharu*
Abenomics , Make in India , Modinomics , Republic Day parade
Feb 10,2015 National Commentaries

An Indian Perspective

"India-US relations:Developments from the Fall and Winter of 2014 to the 2015 Modi-Obama Summit"   Between Symbolism and Substance: An Assessment of Obama’s India Visit   Taking a step forward from his September 2014 state visit to the United States, Prime Minister Modi invited President Obama to visit India as the Guest of Honour at the 66th Republic Day celebrations. ..

Rahul Mishra
2+2 Ministerial , BIT , civil nuclear deal , climate change , CliND , defense cooperation , qualitative reinvigoration , Totalization Agreement

Topics of the Month

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Jan 16,2015 Topics of the Month

Comparative Southeast Asian Military Modernization – III

Maritime Balance in the South China Sea: Submarines in Southeast Asia In recent years, Southeast Asian countries have pursued the acquisition of submarines with increasing vigor. Currently, four countries in the region operate them: Indonesia (with two Type 209 submarines), Malaysia (with two Scorpène-class submarines), Singapore (with two Archer-class and four Challenger-class submarines),1 a..

Felix K. Chang
defense community , military cooperation

Country Reports

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Feb 27,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: China (February 2015)

An article by Zhong Feiteng in Waijiao pinglun describes China’s new Asian strategy. It observes that Europe has been the geopolitical center and Asia the periphery, and Great Britain and the United States have reigned as the leaders of the international system. With China and India rising, in the 21st century Asia is becoming the global geopolitical center, but this has caused the United States..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
ASEAN , Cool Japan , Indo-Pacific strategy , Korean wave , Maritime Silk Road , Peaceful Development , Ukraine
Jan 27,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2015)

Russian publications have had to react to an unexpectedly difficult environment at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. Counting on increasing polarization in the Asia-Pacific region, they observed Xi Jinping soften his opposition to the United States in meeting with Barack Obama in November. Intending to separate troubles in Europe from aspirations in Asia, Putin found the spillover so seve..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
BRICS , FTAAP , India , Look East policy , Maritime Silk Road , TPP
Jan 12,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (January 2015)

Deepening confrontation between China-North Korea-Russia on one side and South Korea-the United States-Japan on the other was the center of discussion over the last two months. As the year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Korea-Japan relations and the 70th of Korea’s independence, how to overcome the stalled relationship gained weight. Park also spurred “small multilater..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Eurasia Initiative , human rights , Korean reunification , Revisionism , sanctions , Yasukuni Shrine

Review Article

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Feb 27,2015 Review Article

‘Sengo 70nen hoshu no Ajiakan’ [‘The Asian Views of Conservatives over the Postwar 70 Years’]

Wakamiya Yoshibumi, Sengo 70nen hoshu no Ajiakan, [The Asian Views of Conservatives over the Postwar 70 Years] (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun shuppan, December 25, 2014) In the face of an unrelenting onslaught of criticism from Japanese conservatives, the progressive side, led by Asahi Shimbun, continues to make its case. Unlike the era of the Cold War, when the principal foreign policy divide was the U..

Gilbert Rozman
collective self-defense , conservatism , hereditary leadership , Revisionism , Shinzo Abe , Yasukuni Shrine