Mar 27,2017 Open Forum

Recent Views in Japan Concerning Sino-Russian Relations

How Japanese officials, media, and academics interpret the state of the relationship between China and Russia matters for Japan’s diplomacy with both countries and its foreign policy more generally, including with the United States. If they see a strong bond verging on an alliance with little chance of weakening, then Tokyo must accept that it […]

Yoko Hirose
8-point economic cooperation plan , Abe Shinzo , Arms sales , Balance of power , BRICS , energy , G7 , India , Kuril Islands , media
Dec 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
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 […]

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

Felix K. Chang
Arms sales , code of conduct , defense expenditures , Indonesia , long-term commitment , Malaysia , maritime interests , Philippines , territorial ambitions , Vietnam
Jul 25,2014 National Commentaries

US Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   The Ukraine Crisis and the Future of Sino-Russian Relations President Vladimir Putin has described the improvement of relations with Beijing as one of his major foreign policy accomplishments. While this rapprochement has had concrete economic and political benefits, Russia tended to view relations with China instrumentally, using China as a “card” to […]

Jeffrey Mankoff
Anti-Western sentiment , Arms sales , Central Asia , CICA , Eurasian Union , financial sanctions , gas pipeline , naval maneuvers , revisionist axis , SCO
Apr 11,2014 Open Forum

Russo-Chinese Relations in Strategic Perspective

Russian and Chinese leaders regularly profess an ever-growing congruence of interests and ever-increasing economic, political, and even military cooperation. According to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in October 2013, “Bilateral relations have never reached such high levels.”1 Yet, arguably there is much less harmony here—although what harmony there is remains quite real—than is publicly professed. While […]

Stephen Blank
Arms sales , Asymmetry , energy , junior partner , Sochi Olympics , Ukraine , Ukrainian invasion , Vietnam