July 25,2014 National Commentaries

Chinese Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   My View on Contemporary China-Russia Relations Since the beginning of 2014, the Ukrainian crisis has become the hottest international issue, captivating public attention from around the world. It is fair to say that the Ukrainian conflict has been one of the major crises in international relations since the end of the Cold War. It has serious repercus..

Feng Yujun*
BRICS , CICA , Gas deal , informal alliance , pivot to Asia , Ukraine
July 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2014)

Northeast Asia’s geopolitical tensions have intensified and grown more complicated over the past two months. The Cold War-era legacy of contention between South Korea, the United States, and Japan on one side and China and North Korea on the other has become blurred. President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to visit Seoul before Pyongyang, and Japan lifted certain unilateral economic..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Balanced diplomacy , horizontal and vertical alliance , Kono statement diplomatic record , Park-Xi Summit , serving as a bridge , Xi history speech
July 11,2014 Topics of the Month

India’s New Leadership and East Asia – 2

Protracted Contest: India-China Relations in the 21st Century The history of Indian foreign policy and Sino-Indian relations suggests that India will not concede to live under Chinese dominion in a unipolar Asia. John Garver is correct to point out that the success of national revitalization policies by Narendra Modi in India and Abe Shinzo in Japan will do much to determine the degree of multi..

Daniel Twining
exceptionalism , external balancing , India , military budgets , Modi , threat perceptions
June 18,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2014)

Regional Dynamics, the US Pivot, and Maritime Security Shi Jiazhu and Yu Lingling in Guoji guancha, No. 2, 2014 explain the US strategy in shifting the center of its global strategy to Asia and China’s response to maintain maritime security. They describe its aims as: reducing US lines for fighting a war; concentrating control over resources; and maintaining hegemony in the Asia-Pacific regio..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Central Asia , China’s maritime strategy , Japan-North Korea ties , Japanese militarism , peripheral diplomacy , Southeast Asia , strengthening the SCO , US offensive strategy
June 13,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (June 2014)

The most important event in Japanese foreign policy during this time period was the visit of Barack Obama to Tokyo in late April. Yomiuri shimbun showcased its success as it published a long interview with Obama on April 23 and trumpeted the success for Japanese foreign policy of Obama’s decision to declare unambiguously that the Security Treaty applies to the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands. It credit..

Editorial Staff
Japanese Abductees , Southeast Asia Abe-Obama summit , state branding , territorial issues , textbooks , TPP , triangles , US election
June 13,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (May 2014)

With Russia’s attention having been primarily focused on the Ukrainian crisis in the past months, the coverage of Asia in Russian media and academic reports has been even sparser than usual. Not surprisingly, much of the writing on Asia is framed in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. Putin's recent visit to China and the gas deal between Gazprom and CNPC, however, have sparked some debate in R..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
debt forgiveness , Gas deal , sanctions regime , Turkmenistan , Ukraine , US-Japan alliance
June 13,2014 Open Forum

China’s Charm Offensive to Korea: A New Approach to Extend the Strategic Buffer

It is understood that peace and stability have been China’s major security interest on the Korean Peninsula for many centuries. Given its strategic location and its geographical proximity, the peninsula has been recognized by Chinese leaders as the core strategic area for protecting China’s vital security interests and maintaining regional stability. Traditionally China has identified Sino-Kor..

Han Sukhee*
Ahn Jung-geun , Charm offensive , competition for influence , hedging , Jan Song-Thaek , Kim Jong-un , periphery diplomacy , public opinion
June 13,2014 Open Forum

Evolution of Sino-Russian Defense Cooperation since the Cold War

Ever since 1989, when Russia and China agreed to normalize relations after thirty years of hostility, defense cooperation has remained a cornerstone of their relationship. Within this context, the two have held high-level discussions on international security, negotiated important security-related agreements, conducted joint military exercises, and perhaps most strikingly engaged in large-scale ar..

Paul Schwartz
Arms trade , defense cooperation , joint military exercises , sea denial strategy , technology transfers
June 13,2014 Open Forum

Why Values Matter in Australia’s Relations with China

Returning to Australia last year after five or six years away I had a Rip Van Winkle moment. Back in 2007, Wall Street was awash with cash, Europe was booming, and China was humming along. Today China is still humming and Australia’s economy is ticking along in harmony. That much could be predicted. What I had not appreciated was that China’s growing momentum was being felt in Australia well b..

John Fitzgerald
Australia , Central Propaganda Bureau , immigrants , surveillance , trade-security linkage , UN Declaration of Human Rights , universal values
June 13,2014 Open Forum

South Korea’s Place in China’s Foreign Policy Discourse

Xi Jinping’s foreign policy agenda for the next ten years envisions a “new type of major power relations” (xinxing daguo guanxi) and proactive, “peripheral diplomacy” (zhoubian waijiao) with neighboring countries. What do these initiatives mean for China’s relations with South Korea? Chinese official and scholarly assessments of the Xi leadership’s current policy directives elucidate..

See-Won Byun
history cooperation , new type of major power relations , peripheral diplomacy , political distrust , US-ROK alliance