April 19,2016 Open Forum

Russia-Southeast Asia Relations: In China’s Shadow?

From May 19-20, the leaders of Southeast Asia nations will convene for the Russia-ASEAN summit at the Black Sea resort of Sochi to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership.1 Moscow attaches great importance to this summit as a step forward to reassert Russia’s global standing damaged by the reverberations […]

Vitaly Kozyrev
APEC , EAS , EEU , regional security architecture , Russian Far East
April 15,2016 Open Forum

Can’t Buy Me Soft Power (with Hard Power): China’s Appeal to South Koreans

In January 2016, Twice, a multinational girls pop group of South Korea, was at the center of controversy. Chou Tzu-yu, one of the members from Taiwan appeared on a show holding the Taiwanese official national flag (quite possibly asked to do so by the production team). The clip was uploaded on the Internet and then […]

Kim Jiyoon*
American culture , Confucius Institutes , Global leadership , Liberal democracy , Smart power , Twice
April 15,2016 Open Forum

The Belt & Road Initiative as Power Resource: Lessons from Japan

In 2013, the Chinese government announced its plans to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and to pursue a massive regional infrastructure plan initially called either the “New Silk Road” or the “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR), and now officially termed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The simultaneous push to create a new […]

William W. Grimes
"Belt and Road" Initiative , ADB , AIIB , MITI , Transactional power
April 07,2016 Open Forum

Mongolia’s Place in China’s Periphery Diplomacy

Under President Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has reprioritized the country’s peripheral relations within its larger foreign policy portfolio. This marks a break with foreign policy since Deng Xiaoping, which placed a decided premium on great power relations, particularly with the United States, to ensure China’s growth and security.1 While the Xi […]

Jeffrey Reeves
Comprehensive strategic partnership , One Belt One Road , peripheral diplomacy , Steppe Road Initiative
April 07,2016 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 4, No. 2)

Sino-US Relations While many are discussing the dominance of competition over cooperation in Sino-US relations, one DC presentation argued that both threads are intensifying under the strong leadership of Xi Jinping. After many years in the 2000s when Washington had urged China to play a more active role in regional and global affairs—becoming a “responsible […]

Editorial Staff
Eurasian Five , Japanese nationalism , Obama-Xi Summit , Russian Far East , South China Sea