Mar 27,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (March 2017)

On February 10, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs carried an Interfax interview with Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov on Russian Asia policies in the past year. He cited as the biggest event the May Sochi summit with the members of ASEAN. A second important event was carrying the entry of India and Pakistan into the […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

Abe Shinzo , APEC , ASEAN , Cold War , Denuclearization , Eastern Economic Forum , globalization , Greater Eurasia , India , Kuril Islands

Feb 28,2017 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 5, No. 1)

Rarely has there been such a tumultuous period in US foreign policy, reflected in DC discussions of it; many unknown figures were joining a new administration as lines of authority and influence were not only in flux, they were in chaos. Few in the think tank community spoke for the Trump team, but on Asia […]

Editorial Staff

Abe Shinzo , Arms trade , ASEAN , Australia , Central Asia , comfort women , contingency , G8 , Georgia , India

Feb 10,2017 Open Forum

Xinjiang and the Trans-nationalization of Uyghur Terrorism: Cracks in the “New Silk Road”?

President Xi Jinping’s ambitious “One Belt, One Road” strategy has magnified Chinese concern for the security of its long restive northwestern province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Xinjiang, as Owen Lattimore argued, throughout much of recorded history constituted (along with Tibet and Mongolia) the “marginal Inner Asian zone” of Chinese expansion.1 With the region’s […]

Michael Clarke

9/11 , Afghanistan , Al Qaeda , Central Asia , counterterrorism , critical theory , East Turkestan Islamic Movement , energy , globalization , Iraq

Feb 09,2017 Special Forum

Russia-China Defense Cooperation: New Developments

Sino-Russian defense cooperation has intensified significantly, especially after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, making an update of what I wrote in this journal barely a year ago important in a wide-ranging assessment of how the military situation is evolving in East Asia. Coming after a prolonged period of relative decline in defense relations between […]

Paul Schwartz

Arms trade , Diaoyu islands , East China Sea , International Army Games , Joint Sea naval exercise , Lada-class submarines , MIRV , missile defense system , Peace Mission , Putin

Feb 01,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2017)

Russia appears to be on the precipice of some important change with less optimism than before but more candor about uncertainties. The December Putin-Abe summit left more questions than answers, less a sense of success or failure than of doubt on what comes next. The Putin-Xi summit of late November was perfunctory, coming amid continued […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

Abe Shinzo , ASEAN , Central Asia , comfort women , EAS , energy , Eurasian Economic Union , G7 , Greater Eurasia , GSOMIA

Oct 18,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (October 2016)

Russian articles in the late summer of 2016 found multiple reasons to take heart. The Sino-US relationship appeared more troubled, opening more space for Russia. Plans for transit between the Russian Far East and Northeast China are showcased as advancing. The Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok’s success, especially due to Abe Shinzo’s enthusiastic support for […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

ASEAN , BRICS , Eastern Economic Forum , EEU , G20 , SCO , Silk Road Economic Belt , South China Sea

Oct 18,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2016)

How did Abe’s meeting with Putin in Vladivostok contribute to a breakthrough in relations? How are growing tensions over the South China Sea (and divisiveness within ASEAN) and the North Korean nuclear threat impacting Japan? How are relations with South Korea seen now that payment to the “comfort women” fund has been authorized? In the […]

Editorial Staff

ASEAN , comfort women , G20 , rebalance , SCO , Sino-Russian rapprochement , South China Sea , THAAD

Aug 29,2016 Open Forum

A Chinese Take on India’s Eastward Strategy and Its Implications

India is rising, with growing economic power and expanding interests. India is not satisfied with being a dominant power in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. It is also looking toward other regions, east and west – the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular. India’s eastward movement has some important implications […]

CHU Shulong

APEC , ASEAN , ASEAN + 6 , BRICS , East China Sea , One Belt, One Road , One Road" , RCEP , SCO , South China Sea

Aug 12,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II: India’s Balance of Interest in the Asian Century

By outlining the nuances propelling India’s diplomatic and military engagements in recent weeks, this article argues that each nation in the India-US-Japan trilateral design is guided by its own individual national interest and that India’s attitude toward geopolitical realities is shaped by a balance between engagement and autonomy. This piece, as the first one, analyzes […]

Titli Basu

BRICS , East China Sea , India-US-Japan , Nuclear Suppliers’ Group , RIMPAC , SCO , Shangri-La Dialogue , South China Sea , UNCLOS

Dec 23,2015 Special Forum

Introduction to the Special Forum

A lot has happened in Sino-Russian relations in 2014-2015, but some observers still are pondering whether this is a serious, alliance-like relationship with far-reaching impact on the Asia-Pacific region or something more ephemeral, subject to clashing regional interests that could turn the two against each other. Just two years ago a Special Forum assessed Sino-Russian […]

Editorial Staff

National security , North Korea , Regionalism , SCO