June 30,2015 Open Forum

The US-Japan Alliance and East Asia: Five Guiding Principles

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s trip to the United States in late April and early May was touted as a success and a boost for US-Japan alliance relations. The personal dynamics between President Obama and Abe appeared much warmer compared with their previous meeting in 2014. Public sentiment between the United States and Japan is at […]

Tanaka Hitoshi*
AIIB , Japan-US alliance , SDF , TPP , US-Japan Defense Cooperation Guidelines
June 29,2015 Open Forum

Doomed by Dialogue? Will ASEAN Survive Great Power Rivalry in Asia

Pundits and policymakers increasingly see the changing great power politics in Asia (or the Asia-Pacific or Indo-Pacific, terms I use interchangeably) as an existential challenge to ASEAN. Of particular concern here is the growing military assertiveness of China in ASEAN’s backyard, the South China Sea, and the US “rebalancing” or “pivot” strategy. Added to this […]

Amitav Acharya
African Union , ASEAN , Multiplexity
June 26,2015 Open Forum

Reimagining Asia: From Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific

The map of Asia is being reimagined. The idea of the Asia-Pacific, which made good sense as a framework for regional order in the late twentieth century, is giving way to another construct: the Indo-Pacific. This changing use of geographic terms has real-world consequences for how states and leaders perceive the regional strategic order, the […]

Rory Medcalf
Asia-Pacific , Australia , Indo-Pacific , Middle Power Diplomacy
June 26,2015 Open Forum

What to Make of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

As a stand-alone institution, the proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) cannot change the world. But it exists in a broader strategic framework of Chinese policies and institutions that give the AIIB some global significance. This framework has sub-regional, Eurasian, and global levels with economic and security dimensions. The AIIB plays a role in strategy […]

David Arase
AIIB , community of common destiny , One Belt, One Road , One Road" , periphery diplomacy