Feb 19,2019 Special Forum

Military Aspects of the Russo-Chinese Alliance: A View from the United States

Recent official US statements postulate Sino-Russian enmity towards the US.1 Moreover, they rightly highlight an unprecedentedly close alignment of these two states against the US.2  In other words the triangular relationship is now a relationship of two against one. Following the US assessment, this article opposes the reigning academic view, expressed in numerous recent studies […]

Stephen Blank

BRI , C4ISR , FONOPs , INF Treaty , Northern Sea Route , Sino-Russian alliance , South China Sea , UNCLOS , Vostok 2018

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

International Law in US-China Relations: Trade Wars and Maritime Rights in the Era of Xi and Trump

In an increasingly fraught US-China relationship, issues of international law have become important in their own right and illustrative of broader patterns. A pair of particularly salient and illuminating arenas are trade (and related economic matters) and maritime rights (including related security issues, especially in the South China Sea). In each of these fields, the […]

Jacques deLisle

BRI , CPTPP , Made in China 2025 , RCEP , South China Sea , TPP , UNCLOS , WTO

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

A Prognosis of the Current Sino-American Malaise

The current relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States has been described by reputable China scholars as the worst it has been since normalization in 1979.1 How bad can it get?  The easy answer to that question is, of course, no one can know the future. That granted, we focus […]

Lowell Dittmer

BRI , Socialism with Chinese Characteristics , South China Sea , UNCLOS , Xi Jinping Thought

Jul 29,2017 Special Forum

ASEAN

For Southeast Asia, the halcyon days of the Obama “pivot,” which saw the president initiate the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, accede to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation on the way to joining the East Asia Summit, and visit almost all Southeast Asian countries (the only exception was Brunei, which he would have visited […]

Liow Joseph Chinyong*

APEC summit , BRI , Donald Trump , FONOPs , South China Sea , TPP , UNCLOS , US-ASEAN Summit

Dec 16,2016 Special Forum

Facing China: Policy Challenges for the Trump Administration in East Asia

As Donald J. Trump comes to power as the 45th president of the United States, he and his national security and foreign policy team will face significant challenges in dealing with a now-formidable and recently more assertive China. To a great extent, the problems they will encounter in dealing with China would confront any early […]

Jacques deLisle

Agreed Framework , Asia pivot , Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , burden-sharing , Charm offensive , constitutional revisionism , cross-Strait relations , Denuclearization , East China Sea , FTAAP

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

Jul 27,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II: Japan-US-India Security Cooperation Has Progressed “Dramatically”

The Japan-US-India cooperation has progressed dramatically over the last two months (June-July 2016). Three developments, in particular, have highlighted an advance in the trilateral security cooperation. First, defense ministers from all three countries at the 15th Asia Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue) emphasized the importance of trilateral security cooperation. Nakatani asserted, “With regard to its relationship […]

Nagao Satoru*

Asian Security Summit , Indian Ocean , Malabar maritime exercises , Shangri-La Dialogue , South China Sea , UNCLOS

Jun 03,2016 Open Forum

Chinese Interpretations of Japan and Its Role in the Indo-Pacific Region in 2016

In April, Kishida Fumio made the first official visit by a Japanese foreign minister to China in more than four years. Sino–Japanese relations had deteriorated over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute in the early 2010s and have yet to recover. They overcame one hurdle when Xi Jinping agreed to meet Abe Shinzo during Abe’s visit for […]

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)

Article 9 , China threat theory , Expansionist history , India-Japan relations , Japanese Air Self-Defense Force , proactive pacifism , Quadrilateral initiative , South China Sea , UNCLOS

May 18,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario I: India’s Approach towards Indo-Pacific Triangularity

The year 2015 witnessed the formation of new strategic triangulations involving India. Frameworks including US-India-Japan and India-Australia-Japan were added to the existing Indian trilateral engagements, including the India-China-Russia arrangement, which has been in operation since 2002. The new trilateral designs, especially the US-India-Japan arrangement, are sometimes interpreted through the narrative of fluidity in regional geopolitics, […]

Titli Basu

Balance of interest , Geopolitics , SLOC , UNCLOS , US-Japan-India triangle

Apr 28,2016 National Commentaries

A View from the United States

Inadvertent escalation or Chinese expansion? Two very different fears compete for attention in the proliferating discourse on the risk-rich imbroglio  of the South China Sea. Some fear an inadvertent escalation that may unnecessarily trigger war. Others fear Chinese expansion that prepares for its hegemony. Only Xi’s China cultivates a priority fear of American expansion. Many […]

Donald K. Emmerson

Nine-dash line , Pax Sinica , South China Sea , sovereignty , UNCLOS