Special Forum

[more]

The Sino-Japanese Competition in East Asia
- Views from Different Countries and Trilateral Cooperation

Oct 17,2014 Special Forum

Sino-Japanese Competition and Its Multilateral Implications

While eyes are fixed on the Sino-US competition in East Asia, there is also a competition for influence between China and Japan. In the decade of the 2000s, this centered mostly on Northeast Asia (over the terminus of an oil pipeline across Russia, South Korea’s role in the +3 meetings of ASEAN+3, etc.), and this area continues to be the object of their maneuvering despite China’s increasing e..

Editorial Staff
demonization , India , multilateralism , Southeast Asia , Territorial Disputes , triangular relations , Vietnam
Oct 21,2014 Special Forum

Japan’s Foreign Policy toward Northeast Asia as Seen in Chinese Publications

In the past few years, China and Japan have been experiencing serial difficulties in their relations, beyond anything seen since normalization in 1972. Chinese writings on Japan’s foreign policy are, correspondingly, proliferating with emotional articles imbued with strong nationalism far outnumbering others based on cool-headed calculation of national interests. Articles on bilateral relations..

Cheng Xiaohe*
Oct 17,2014 Special Forum

Vietnam Among the Powers: Struggle & Cooperation

  *The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and are not presented as those of the Congressional Research Service or the Library of Congress. Like other countries in East Asia, Vietnam has had to cope with a changed strategic and economic environment forged by China’s rise and growing competition between China and Japan. Although Vietnam’s relationship with China i..

Mark Manyin
Arms sales , ASEAN , collective self-defense , communist party , equidistance , great power rivalry , oil rig , South China Sea , the Philippines , tourism

Open Forum

[more]
Oct 15,2014 Open Forum

Washington Insights, October 2014

The Obama visit to East Asia in April marked a transition from one set of discussions in Washington, DC to another. Instead of agonizing about Japan-ROK relations, there was new thinking about the future of the Korean Peninsula, stimulated by debates in South Korea encouraged by Park Geun-hye. Rather than a narrow focus on bilateral maritime disputes in the East China and South China seas, discuss..

Editorial Staff
ASEAN centrality , India , Indo-Pacific region , North Korean outreach , Park-Xi Summit , peaceful unification , Southeast Asia
Oct 15,2014 Open Forum

Can Indonesia Fulfill Its Aspirations to Regional Leadership?

There is much talk today about Indonesia’s rise and aspirations to regional leadership as a middle power. Supporters of this proposition often cite a raft of facts and statistics to validate this claim: Indonesia’s impressive economic growth rates in recent years (averaging 6 percent) relative to other Asian countries, its young population and vibrant democracy, its size and enormous natural r..

Liow Joseph Chinyong*
ASEAN Security Community , Bali Democracy Forum , Cambodia , Indo-Pacific Treaty , Indonesia , Malaysia , Philippines , regional leadership , Singapore , Thailand
Oct 15,2014 Open Forum

Malaysia-China Relations after MH370: Policy Change or Business as Usual?

Malaysia and China have seen one of the most cordial and productive relationships in the Asia-Pacific throughout the post-Cold War era, one with implications beyond their bilateral ties. Despite their rocky past during the Cold War due to ideological and political problems, bilateral relations have undergone a transformation since their rapprochement in 1974, evolving from mutual hostility to a mu..

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
ASEAN , flight MH370 , hedging , Malaysia , Philippines , PLA navy , South China Sea , threat perceptions , tourism , Trade

National Commentaries

[more]

Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit

Sep 29,2014 National Commentaries

A South Korean Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   In recent months, pundits in Washington and Tokyo talk or insinuate quite a bit about the so-called “Seoul-in-the-China-orbit” thesis. From this author’s perspective, however, much of it has been blown out of proportion. Granted that, during the last year or so, it was common to hear that South Korea-China relations have never been bett..

Chung Jae Ho*
EEZ , missile defense , national interests. strategic suspicion , overblown expectations , TPP , track 1.5 meeting
Sep 29,2014 National Commentaries

A US Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   The growing ties between China and the Republic of Korea are among the most consequential changes in East Asian politics, economics, and security of the past several decades. From modest beginnings in 1992 when Beijing formally accepted the reality of two Koreas rather than one, China and the ROK have built an increasingly diversified and inter..

Jonathan D. Pollack
comprehensive upgrading of relations , Economic Relations , FTA , hot in economy and warm in politics , major middle power , mutual respect , National security , trade dependency , US
Sep 29,2014 National Commentaries

A Japanese Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   For understandable reasons, the Japanese paid rapt attention to the July 2014 Seoul summit between China and South Korea. Perhaps, the most compelling reason was to see what stance the two would take on issues concerning Japan, especially the territorial and historical consciousness questions. At the prior June 2013 Beijing summit, there was im..

Kimura Kan*
China , collective self-defense , Japan , joint ceremony of remembrance , missile defense , National identity , National security , public opinion , South Korea , Southeast Asia

Topics of the Month

[more]
Oct 01,2014 Topics of the Month

Comparative Southeast Asian Military Modernization – 1

Southeast Asia’s military modernization over the last half decade has been impressive. Defense expenditures across the region have risen, on average, by nine percent each year since 2009, but the region’s countries have not been uniform in their approaches. The degree to which those countries with maritime interests have modernized their militaries appears to be increasingly linked to their st..

Felix K. Chang
Arms sales , code of conduct , defense expenditures , Indonesia , long-term commitment , Malaysia , maritime interests , Philippines , territorial ambitions , Vietnam
Sep 02,2014 Topics of the Month

Civilizational Divides and Regional Confrontations – 2

Unlike previous Topics of the Month, this one will have multiple authors as well as rejoinders. The idea for it arose from Francois Godement’s observations that the European powers are not much interested in becoming involved in the maritime struggles between China and its neighbors or in the North Korean nuclear crisis. Unlike the era of the Cold War, when developments tied to the global Soviet..

Gilbert Rozman
Asia , China , Economic dependence , Europe , France , G7 sanctions , international community , Japan , National identity , National security

Country Reports

[more]
Sep 12,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (September 2014)

President Park’s “principled diplomacy” has been criticized for a lack of detailed policies. Park set the two diplomatic goals of a “Northeast Asian Peace Process” and a “Korean Peninsula Trust Process.” The former has been practically blocked by Korea-Japan relations, and the later by the inter-Korean relationship. Seoul and Japan currently have only one official dialogue channel at..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Apologizing compensation" , May 24 restrictions , principled diplomacy , reunification charter , sex slaves , small routes to North Korea , universal human rights and history
Oct 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (October 2014)

Ukraine (Russia), South Korea, India and, as usual, Japan attracted keen attention for their potential to alter the geopolitical environment in Asia. Ukraine’s significance is its impact on Russian relations with both the United States and China. In the case of South Korea its tensions with Japan and forward-looking diplomacy with China led to questions about the strength of its alliance with th..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Civilizations , hegemonism , India , Look East policy , New Cold War , new defense guidelines , Ukraine , US-ROK alliance
Sep 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (September 2014)

While the world’s gaze centered on Russia’s relations with the West and the on-again, off-again confrontation over Ukraine, Russian publications paraded a new, more assertive outlook on Russia’s “turn to the East” (povorot na Vostok). Giving impetus to this was an early July meeting of ambassadors addressed by Vladimir Putin, the statements at which on East and Central Asia were aired by..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
BRICS , Central Asia , dead hikiwake , India , liberal secularism , New Cold War , turn to the East , Ukraine

Review Article

[more]