Oct 15,2015 Special Forum

Dreaming Big, Acting Big: Xi’s Impact on China’s Military Development

Xi Jinping emerged from his recent US visit with no meaningful new constraints on the development, deployment, and use of China’s military. Constructively, as part of a larger UN support package, he unveiled a Chinese plan to establish a police squad and 8,000 standby troops for UN Peacekeeping. Despite an ambiguous statement of intent to […]

Andrew Erickson

Asymmetry , China Military Dream , Kill-Chain , National identity , Sino-American military tensions , South China Sea

Aug 13,2015 Open Forum

The Politics of “Struggling Co-evolution“: Trade, Power, and Vision in Vietnam’s Relations with China

China’s increasing presence, economically and militarily, has the potential to lead to a Chinese sphere of influence in which Southeast Asia is regarded as China’s “backyard.” For realist scholars, China’s regional leadership constitutes an irresistible outcome of its technology, military forces, economic scale, and population. Among them, military and economic indicators are the two crucial […]

Vu Truong-Minh*

Asymmetric trade , Great Mekong Sub-region , National security , South China Sea , Yarn Forward

Aug 13,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2015)

Japan-Russia Relations Relations with Russia appeared to be back on track in the first part of the summer. Plans for Putin to visit Japan were going forward despite unconcealed disapproval by the Obama administration. Japanese writers held out hope for trouble in Sino-Russian relations in the face of many signs to the contrary. Abe’s determination […]

Editorial Staff

Japan-ROK tensions , Japan-US alliance , National security , Putin-Abe summit , South China Sea

Jul 31,2015 Special Forum

Introduction to the Special Forum

ASEAN is an organization that symbolizes regionalism, collective action for the management of great power relations, and harmonious handling of civilizational and economic differences. It reached its pinnacle in the late 1990s and 2000s. Now it is struggling to play the expected, outsize role in all of these dimensions. In conditions of increased Chinese assertiveness […]

Editorial Staff

ASEAN centrality , code of conduct , Regionalism , South China Sea , US-China rivalry

Jul 31,2015 Special Forum

The Impact of South China Sea (SCS) Tensions on ASEAN: An “Eye-of-the-Beholder” Dilemma

An evaluation of the impact of SCS disputes on ASEAN at this critical juncture in its evolution depends, fundamentally, upon what one thinks ASEAN is all about. Individual ASEAN member-states adopted a charter in 2008 that lays out the organization’s formal objectives. A centerpiece is that ASEAN will become a single economic and political-security community. […]

Satu Limaye

ASEAN unity , Regionalism , South China Sea

Dec 08,2014 Topics of the Month

Comparative Southeast Asian Military Modernization – II

Regional Leadership through Strength?: Indonesian Foreign and Security Policies in Southeast Asia With the enthusiasm surrounding the election of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, some have again speculated as to whether Indonesia will become the regional leader in Southeast Asia. That was the central question behind Joseph Chinyong Liow’s “Can Indonesia Fulfill Its Aspirations to Regional […]

Felix K. Chang

maritime interests , mediator , militarization , South China Sea

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 17,2014 Special Forum

Japan’s Approach to Southeast Asia in the Context of Sino-Japanese Relations

At times, since 2000, interest has piqued in Sino-Japanese competition—over Russia (rival proposals for an oil pipeline in the early 2000s), South Korea (maneuvering within ASEAN+3 and in the Six-Party Talks), and India (recently, as Abe Shinzo and Xi Jinping both are seeking upgraded ties to Narendra Modi)—, but the most intense, sustained rivalry has […]

Gilbert Rozman

Asian values , Asianism , Australia , East Asian Community , Fukuda Doctrine , India , Rebalancing , Regionalism , Revisionism , South China Sea

Oct 15,2014 Open Forum

Malaysia-China Relations after MH370: Policy Change or Business as Usual?

Malaysia and China have seen one of the most cordial and productive relationships in the Asia-Pacific throughout the post-Cold War era, one with implications beyond their bilateral ties. Despite their rocky past during the Cold War due to ideological and political problems, bilateral relations have undergone a transformation since their rapprochement in 1974, evolving from […]

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*

ASEAN , flight MH370 , hedging , Malaysia , Philippines , PLA navy , South China Sea , threat perceptions , tourism , Trade

Apr 15,2014 Topics of the Month

Sino-US Relations – 4

Assessing US-China Relations: How We Should Not Misread China?   On March 25, 2014, President Xi Jinping met President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague. Xi’s remark on bringing the best regards of Michele Obama to her husband prompted a knowing laugh from the US president, but […]

Wang Dong*

ADIZ , freedom of navigation , Philippines , Ren'ai Reef , self-righteousness , South China Sea , vital US interests