December 15,2014 Open Forum

Looking Eastward to China: Beijing’s Central Asian Diplomacy and its Implications for China’s New Silk Road Initiatives

During a meeting with the presidents of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Pakistan on November 8, 2014, President Xi Jinping announced that China was contributing 40 billion dollars to establish a Silk Road Fund (silu jijin 丝路基金) to strengthen regional connectivity and enhance cooperation with neighboring countries. According to Xinhua news agency, the fund […]

Hasan H. Karrar
Bazaar , Central Asia , economic connectivity , informal economy , Maritime Silk Road , Silk Road Economic Belt
December 15,2014 Open Forum

The Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI): A Vision toward Sustainable Peace and Cooperation in Northeast Asia

The security environment in the Asia-Pacific is in flux. South Korea is facing the most serious and complex external security environment since the end of the Cold War. Tensions have risen remarkably in Northeast Asia in recent years, sparking growing concern in the international community and among the major players in the region. China’s unilateral […]

Lee Sang-Hyun*
Asia Paradox , NAPCI , regional collective security framework , South Korea , trust-building , trustpolitiks
December 09,2014 Open Forum

The New Fulcrum of Asia: The Indo-Japan Entente and the Rise of China

A new and potentially pivotal alignment of India and Japan is forming in response to China’s rise. This still informal security and military partnership implicitly premised on countering an ever-more-powerful China reflects deep common apprehensions about China’s rise and will probably take increasing substance in coming years. This entente marks a crucial failure of China’s […]

John W. Garver
1962 War , Abe Shinzo , Arms sales , India , military exercises , ODA , Security alignment , war memories
October 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 […]

Editorial Staff
ASEAN centrality , India , Indo-Pacific region , North Korean outreach , Park-Xi Summit , peaceful unification , Southeast Asia
October 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, […]

Liow Joseph Chinyong*
ASEAN Security Community , Bali Democracy Forum , Cambodia , Indo-Pacific Treaty , Indonesia , Malaysia , Philippines , regional leadership , Singapore , Thailand
October 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 […]

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
ASEAN , flight MH370 , hedging , Malaysia , Philippines , PLA navy , South China Sea , threat perceptions , tourism , Trade
October 15,2014 Open Forum

Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) of China, Japan and the ROK

A new impetus for regional cooperation arose at the third Korea-Japan-China trilateral summit held on May 30, 2010 on Jeju Island. Upon agreement among the three heads of government, the ROK, Japan, and the People’s Republic of China launched a Secretariat to strengthen and institutionalize trilateral cooperation, and in September 2011, the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat […]

Shin Bong-kil*
ASEAN , ASEAN+3 , Northeast Asian economic region , regional cooperation organization , Secretariat , trust
August 11,2014 Open Forum

Southeast Asia’s Developing Divide

The Asan Forum’s introductory Topics of the Month article on the present state of Northeast Asian strategic competition and regionalism by Sergey Radchenko shares much in common with this article. The authors summarized in Multilateralism in Northeast Asia I contend that: 1) there are developing geostrategic divides in Northeast Asia just as the Cold War […]

Malcolm Cook
ASEAN rebalancing , developing divide , foreign direct investment , FTAs , maritime-continental divide , multilateralism , Regionalism , Southeast Asia