December 30,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (December 2014)

The prevailing Chinese narrative is zero-sum, blaming Japan unsparingly and the United States, if in a less vitriolic manner, for regional fragmentation when a path to integration is within reach. Not only is there no hint of any mistakes made by China at any time since the 1949 revolution, there is no indication that compromise is part of resolving problems. The voices of the small group of acade..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Japanese containment , New Cold War , Sino-ROK alliance , US-ROK alliance
December 19,2014 Review Article

‘The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia’

Saadia Pekkanen, John Ravenhill and Rosemary Foot, eds., Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) Broad implications of the emergence of a new regional order are brought to light in The Oxford Handbook of The International Relations of Asia, an impressive collection by many of the international relations (IR) field’s leading scholars on co..

Steven Denney
Asia Paradox , economic hub , regional bifurcation
December 19,2014 Open Forum

China and India: Coping with Growing Asymmetry

It is not just the GDP figure of China that has expanded to become nearly four times that of India’s; the components that constitute it reflect a picture of growing asymmetry between these two emerging Asian economies, which has deeper systemic implications. The contributions to their GDP from the agriculture, industry, and service sectors in the case of China have moved from 40:33:27 percent in..

Swaran Singh
Asymmetry , India
December 15,2014 Open Forum

Looking Eastward to China: Beijing’s Central Asian Diplomacy and its Implications for China’s New Silk Road Initiatives

During a meeting with the presidents of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Pakistan on November 8, 2014, President Xi Jinping announced that China was contributing 40 billion dollars to establish a Silk Road Fund (silu jijin 丝路基金) to strengthen regional connectivity and enhance cooperation with neighboring countries. According to Xinhua news agency, the fund is earmarked to..

Hasan H. Karrar
Bazaar , Central Asia , economic connectivity , informal economy , Maritime Silk Road , Silk Road Economic Belt
December 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (December 2014)

As Abe stumbled in the fall of 2014, his defenders grew more aggressive. Initiatives to Russia, North Korea, and China faced one sort of problem or another. Even as Abe reactivated his pursuit of Putin, he was put in the awkward position in Brisbane of a G7 warning, which Japan could not avoid joining, against further Russian aggression, as Putin’s support for separatists in Ukraine threatened t..

Editorial Staff
AIIB , history issues , Japanese Abductees , normal state , Ukraine
December 01,2014 Special Forum

China’s Eurasian Pivot

Since President Xi Jinping came into office, China has been actively pivoting to the vast expanses of Eurasia, particularly reflected in the strengthening of Beijing’s engagement with its neighbors on its western frontier. One of the most important components of China's Eurasia pivot is an attempt to build the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), with which Beijing intends to bind more than 40 countr..

Zhang Xiaotong* , Marlen Belgibayev
AIIB , Eurasian Economic Union , Marching Westwards , Shanghai Cooperation Organisation , Silk Road Economic Belt
December 01,2014 Special Forum

China’s Views and Responses to Multilateral Talks in Pacific Asia

In November 2014, at the 25th APEC summit in Beijing, President Xi Jinping announced the USD 40 billion Silk Road Infrastructure Fund, raising awareness of China’s new regional strategy at the world stage. Outside observers had been debating how China would react to the US-led TPP negotiations and the ASEAN-centered Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Expectations had risen, in t..

Min Ye
ASEAN centrality , New Silk Road Strategy , Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership , Trans-Pacific Partnership , US rebalance
December 01,2014 Special Forum

The Russian Pivot to Asia

Vladimir Putin’s “turn to the East” (povorot na Vostok) greatly intensified in 2014. Of the various pivots to Asia it is one of the most controversial, but, at various times, was encouraged by all countries active in the region. Compared to the others, it has the most diversified objectives, but also the greatest contradictions among them. In the context of multiple pivots, this one has the ..

Gilbert Rozman
APEC summit , Eurasian Economic Union , Eurasianism , Russian Far East Development , Silk Road Economic Belt , turn to the East
November 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, they emphasize failures..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
BRICS , India , international relations framework , Russo-Japanese relations , Southeast Asia , turn to the East
November 10,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (November 2014)

South Korean newspapers have recently focused on parallels in international relations. As they follow developments in Ukraine and Hong Kong and keep their gaze on North Korea, they are alert to similarities that can influence the foreign policy of the Park administration. The most significant overlaps are found between Ukraine and South Korea. The former is situated on a civilizational fault line ..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Agreed Framework , Civilizations , Hong Kong , Regionalism , reorganization of Asia , THAAD , Ukraine