Jun 06,2020 Special Forum

Democracies with Preexisting Conditions and the Coronavirus in the Indo-Pacific

Around the globe, democracy is ailing. In the past 15 years or so, an increasing number of democracies worldwide have suffered from gradual erosion and decay. According to the most recent Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) report,1 examples can be found in most regions of the world including the United States and the European Union, where […]

Aurel Croissant
COVID-19 , democratic backsliding , free and open Indo-Pacific , Varieties of Democracy
Jun 06,2020 Special Forum

Soft Power and Sharp Power: The View from Australia

Australians of late have been shocked by the unravelling of US soft power globally and China’s offensive use of sharp power targeting their country. At issue is the prospect of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific upheld by the norms and institutions of a liberal rules-based order. This matters because, while Australia is partly dependent on […]

John Fitzgerald
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Sharp power , soft power , the Quad , United Front
Jun 06,2020 Special Forum

Hedging in Post-Pandemic Asia: What, How, and Why?

As the US-China rivalry intensifies amid the COVID-19 crisis, more observers have opined that the “hedging” by smaller states—widely interpreted as a “middle position” between being fully aligned with the US camp and fully bandwagoning with China—is irrelevant, irresponsible, and even dangerous. I engage this debate from a Southeast Asian perspective, addressing the what, how, […]

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Balancing , Bandwagoning , COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , hedging , Trans-Pacific Partnership
Jun 01,2020 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (June 2020)

The spring of 2020 saw a downturn in Sino-Japanese relations, which were now embroiled in the pandemic war of words, with little else on the foreign policy radar. Some warnings about North Korea and Russia were heard, while wishful thinking about South Korea also appeared. Some raised the puzzle of why Abe’s poll numbers were […]

Editorial Staff
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Cold War , COVID-19 , Northern Territories , Senkaku Islands , Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
May 25,2020 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (May 2020)

One message stood apart in Russian coverage of international relations in the Indo-Pacific in the early spring of 2020: what is the impact of the pandemic on China and on Sino-US relations? In the background is the question: what will be the impact on Russian foreign policy? As for China, numerous questions are raised about […]

Editorial Staff
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Cold War , COVID-19 , Eurasian Economic Union , Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
May 19,2020 Open Forum

The Launch of an Ideological Cold War in 2020: The US Perspective

Today’s US response to China that suggests a cold war mentality: first, blaming problems in the Sino-US relationship, China more generally, and the pandemic’s origin and response on the inherent nature of China’s communist system; second, referencing a different history or civilizational foundation, connected to such forces as the May Fourth Movement and Taiwan’s Chinese […]

Gilbert Rozman
Cold War , COVID-19 , Donald Trump , Joe Biden , Public diplomacy , Xi Jinping
May 15,2020 Open Forum

China’s “Wolf Warrior” Diplomacy in the COVID-19 Crisis

COVID-19, a black swan event, altered the planned trajectory of China’s domestic politics and its engagement with the rest of the world. The public health crisis from COVID-19 has strained every country’s resources and every government’s credibility. Especially for an authoritarian state such as China, which has drawn its legitimacy primarily from its performance, COVID-19 […]

Yun Sun
Boxer Protocol , China International Development Cooperation Agency , China Model , COVID-19 , Public diplomacy , World Health Organization
May 09,2020 Open Forum

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Russo-Chinese Border

The pandemic has already changed the course of world history, and its future consequences, such as how and when it finishes, remain unknown to us amidst a dynamic situation. However, it is possible and necessary to draw some conclusions based on what is now known on how the situation is unfolding in concrete arenas of […]

Ivan Zuenko
China-Russia relations , COVID-19 , Eurasian Economic Union , New Silk Road , turn to the East
May 04,2020 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 8, No. 2

Unlike previous Washington Insights based on attendance at panels and person-to-person contacts, this one draws from a mixture of Zoom meetings and articles from Washington-based think tanks. Extracting alternative scenarios from these exchanges, we do not report on specific sources except for a small number of citations. The objective is to capture the overall tenor […]

Editorial Staff
America First , Cold War , COVID-19 , Donald Trump , hegemony , Sinocentrism , Xi Jinping
Apr 22,2020 Country Reports

Country Report: China (April 2020)

As 2020 began, Chinese authors were busy not only summing up the far-reaching results of 2019 but also putting them in broad analytical perspective. China’s other bilateral relations had slipped as a focus, secondary to the telling impact of the transformative core of the international order—the Sino-US nexus. Sino-Russian relations paled in significance. Relations with […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Cold War , community of common destiny , COVID-19 , Six-Party Talks , Xi Jinping