Nov 21,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (November 2014)

Russian articles on Russia’s “turn to the East” are full of confidence, concentrate on the big picture, and constantly repeat assumptions hardened over the previous half-year. Rather than reflect on Russia’s isolation, they insist that the West is isolated in the international community. Instead of identifying difficulties in the acceptance of Russia into East Asia, […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

BRICS , India , international relations framework , Russo-Japanese relations , Southeast Asia , turn to the East

Oct 17,2014 Special Forum

Sino-Japanese Competition and Its Multilateral Implications

While eyes are fixed on the Sino-US competition in East Asia, there is also a competition for influence between China and Japan. In the decade of the 2000s, this centered mostly on Northeast Asia (over the terminus of an oil pipeline across Russia, South Korea’s role in the +3 meetings of ASEAN+3, etc.), and this […]

Editorial Staff

demonization , India , multilateralism , Southeast Asia , Territorial Disputes , triangular relations , Vietnam

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

Washington Insights, October 2014

The Obama visit to East Asia in April marked a transition from one set of discussions in Washington, DC to another. Instead of agonizing about Japan-ROK relations, there was new thinking about the future of the Korean Peninsula, stimulated by debates in South Korea encouraged by Park Geun-hye. Rather than a narrow focus on bilateral […]

Editorial Staff

ASEAN centrality , India , Indo-Pacific region , North Korean outreach , Park-Xi Summit , peaceful unification , Southeast Asia

Sep 29,2014 National Commentaries

A Japanese Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   For understandable reasons, the Japanese paid rapt attention to the July 2014 Seoul summit between China and South Korea. Perhaps, the most compelling reason was to see what stance the two would take on issues concerning Japan, especially the territorial and historical consciousness questions. At the prior June 2013 Beijing […]

Kimura Kan*

China , collective self-defense , Japan , joint ceremony of remembrance , missile defense , National identity , National security , public opinion , South Korea , Southeast Asia

Aug 31,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (August 2014)

An article by Sun Ru in Zhongguo zhoubian distributed in its August 2014 posting took a close look at the US-Japan-South Korea triangle as it was strengthened by the three-way summit in March. It explained that the United States occupies the leading position in this triangle and has succeeded in temporarily getting the other two […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)

Arms trade , CK FTA , equilibrium , hegemonic thinking , India , public relations battle , Six-Party Talks , Southeast Asia , values-based diplomacy , Xi-Park Summit

Aug 11,2014 Open Forum

Southeast Asia’s Developing Divide

The Asan Forum’s introductory Topics of the Month article on the present state of Northeast Asian strategic competition and regionalism by Sergey Radchenko shares much in common with this article. The authors summarized in Multilateralism in Northeast Asia I contend that: 1) there are developing geostrategic divides in Northeast Asia just as the Cold War […]

Malcolm Cook

ASEAN rebalancing , developing divide , foreign direct investment , FTAs , maritime-continental divide , multilateralism , Regionalism , Southeast Asia

Jul 25,2014 National Commentaries

French Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   China-Russia Partnership: Perceptions in Beijing and Tokyo According to Beijing and Moscow, relations between China and Russia have never been better. One could argue, however, that the solidity and future of the “global strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing can be questioned. In spite of a series of common interests on the […]

Valerie Niquet

Balance of power , divergent threat perceptions , G2 , Putin’s visit to Japan , Russia’s double game , soft balancing , Southeast Asia , the EU

Jun 18,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2014)

Regional Dynamics, the US Pivot, and Maritime Security Shi Jiazhu and Yu Lingling in Guoji guancha, No. 2, 2014 explain the US strategy in shifting the center of its global strategy to Asia and China’s response to maintain maritime security. They describe its aims as: reducing US lines for fighting a war; concentrating control over […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)

Central Asia , China’s maritime strategy , Japan-North Korea ties , Japanese militarism , peripheral diplomacy , Southeast Asia , strengthening the SCO , US offensive strategy

May 23,2014 Topics of the Month

India’s New Leadership and East Asia – 1

India’s election has produced a decisive majority for the political alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi promises to reinvigorate an economy whose annual growth rates have halved from near double-digit rates in recent years. He has pledged to tackle endemic corruption and create a slimmed-down, more effective state […]

Daniel Twining

Asian commons , economic vitality , elections , India , Modi , regional security order , Southeast Asia , strategic reengagement