Jan 29,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Implications for Asian Regionalism and Late Development

In September 2013, President Xi Jinping, while visiting Kazakhstan, announced the new “Silk Road Economic Belt” initiative. In October 2013, during his visit to Indonesia, Xi proposed to establish the “Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road” that connects China with Southeast Asia. From late 2013 to mid-2014, the Chinese government steadily promoted the “the Belt, the […]

Min Ye

Asian Regionalism , Economic Relations , New Silk Road Strategy , One Belt One Road , Trans-Pacific Partnership

Jan 25,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario I

For a quarter century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Far East (RFE) has been caught between Moscow’s failed promises, bureaucratic barriers of a local nature, and unrealized appeals for investment from neighboring countries. The response at every turn has been that, despite earlier problems, things are changing. At the beginning of […]

Gilbert Rozman

Economic Relations , Russian Far East , Sino-Russian Relations

Jan 25,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario I

The Russian Far East (RFE) constitutes both an asset and a liability for Russia. Stretching from east of Lake Baikal to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, this huge expanse of northeastern Eurasia contains all kinds of natural resources—oil and natural gas, coal, iron ore and copper, gold, diamonds, uranium, pristine freshwater, timber, and fish […]

Artyom Lukin

Economic Relations , Russian Far East

Dec 23,2015 Special Forum

Mongolia Hangs in the Balance: Political Choices and Economic Realities

Year 2015 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mongolia’s democratic revolution. Ever since it escaped the protective embrace of its northern neighbor, Mongolia maintained an astute foreign policy, pursuing positive dialogues with China and Russia and also reaching out to its so-called collective “third neighbor,” usually understood to be Western countries plus Japan. The election of […]

Sergey Radchenko

Economic Relations , Good Neighbor policy , Khalkin Gol Battle of 1939 , Neutrality , Regionalism , third neighbor policy

Dec 18,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: China (December 2015)

No indications were found in Chinese publications of realist thinking about how to resolve security challenges such as the threatening North Korean military build-up or the increasingly confrontational atmosphere in the South China Sea. Explanations were missing for why China has resumed high-level meetings with Japan despite its continued demonization of that country and its […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)

Asian values , CJK summit , East Asian Community , Economic Relations , One Belt, One Road , One Road" , Regionalism

Dec 10,2015 Open Forum

India’s National Identity and Its Impact on Security Policy under Modi

The consensus on India’s national identity has been slowly fragmenting over the last twenty-five years, especially since the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 1998 displacing the Congress Party, India’s dominant political party since independence. After being out of power for a decade, the BJP came back to power with a decisive […]

Deepa M. Ollapally

Economic Relations , Modi , National identity , Nationalist-globalist

Dec 01,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario for Modi’s India “Acts East”

The domestic record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is mixed. According to Pew, 87 percent of Indians have a favorable opinion of their prime minister, a level of support any elected leader would celebrate. After economic growth bottomed out at 4.5 percent under the previous government, India now boasts the world’s fastest-growing major economy, […]

Daniel Twining

Act East Policy , Economic Relations , One Belt One Road , Regionalism

Oct 23,2015 Open Forum

Japan and the TPP Conclusion: Regional Order, Negotiations, and Domestic Adjustment

It took five and half years for 12 member states to reach general agreement over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which in encompassing 40 percent of the global economy now proposes to emerge as the largest free trade agreement (FTA) in history. Qualitatively, TPP can be viewed as one of the most ambitious FTAs ever. Dubbed […]

Terada Takashi*

China , Economic Relations , FTAAP , Regionalism , TPP

Oct 07,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2015)

The shadow of history hung over Japan in the late summer as Abe’s statement was debated, the seventieth anniversary of the war’s end passed on August 15, and Xi Jinping commemorated the same anniversary on September 3. Various bilateral relations were put in historical context, as was the march to collective self-defense laws that preoccupied […]

Editorial Staff

Economic Relations , History Wars , National security , North Korea , Post-Cold War , ROK-Sino alliance , Russo-Sino alliance

Sep 24,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Scenario of China’s Fault

In March 2015, Premier Li Keqiang gave a press conference following the conclusion of the annual National People’s Congress, in which he explained that China’s relationship with Japan had reached an important crossroads. In a year in which the two countries were about to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII, Li presented […]

Amy King

CCP , Economic Relations , National identity , Re-Remember , Regionalism