June 26,2019 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario I

The upcoming G20 meeting in Osaka provides Japan with an opportunity to set a bold agenda across an array of global issues, and the dangerous temptation for host countries to pursue too many different ones. All too often the diplomatic pattern has been to generate a laundry list of micro steps that fail to add up to results that move the needle. We saw warning signs that Osaka might..

Benjamin L. Self
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Abe Shinzo , CPTPP , G20 , Osaka Summit
June 26,2019 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario I

As the global focus of attention switched from the G8 to the G20 in the last decade, Japan found itself potentially facing a diluted capacity to influence the world stage, particularly as this shift removed Tokyo’s status as the only member from outside the Euro-North American block. Yet, successive Japanese leaderships have continued to place great importance upon meetings of the group..

Ra Mason
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Abe Shinzo , CPTPP , G20 , Osaka Summit
June 25,2019 Special Forum

Introduction

The fate of democratization in Asia in the post-Cold War era has been closely identified with four cases: Mongolia, the exemplar in inner Asia of establishing—in the shadow of Russia and China—a bona fide democratic system; Indonesia, the principal test case of a major, Moslem-majority country switching to the path of democratization; Malaysia, proof that democracy can weather the excesse..

Gilbert Rozman
democratic backsliding , democratization , Liberal international order , National identity
June 25,2019 Special Forum

Democratization, National Identity, and Foreign Policy in Mongolia in 2019

Democracy came to Mongolia in the aftermath of the Cold War as one of the uplifting success stories of that era, and it has survived for three decades despite conditions that many regard as hostile. Given the legacy of communism and the pressures attributed to Beijing and Moscow, this sparsely populated, landlocked country has not been regarded as a likely stalwart of democracy in the 2010s w..

Mendee Jargalsaikhan
color revolution , electoral democracy , Mongolian People’s Party , Third neighbors
June 25,2019 Special Forum

Democratization, National Identity and Indonesia’s Foreign Policy

Indonesia has gone through a drastic transformation since the downfall of President Suharto in May 1998. Its national identity has evolved as a result of a process of democratization that has transformed Indonesia into the third largest democracy worldwide. The country also remains a rare example of a Muslim majority democracy. In light of its diversity and history, the issue of national iden..

Ralf Emmers
Bali Democracy Forum , Guided democracy , Joko Widodo , Rules-based order , Suharto
June 25,2019 Special Forum

Truce and Tales in New Malaysia: Happy First Anniversary

The expression “New Malaysia” or Malaysia Baharu emerged in 2016 as a semantic capsule for the democratic aspirations of the movement for electoral reform Bersih (“clean” in Malay), whose rally in November of that year brought more than 100,000 people to the streets of Kuala Lumpur.1 “New Malaysia” soon became the leitmotiv of the entire opposition movement..

Sophie Lemiere
Truce and Tales in New Malaysia: Happy First Anniversary
June 25,2019 Special Forum

Myanmar’s Democratic Backsliding in the Struggle for National Identity and Independence

When Myanmar’s ruling military junta transitioned to a nominally civilian government in 2011, observers around the world asked whether one of Asia’s most repressive regimes was finally breaking with its authoritarian past. In 2015, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) swept the general elections, winning the majority in the national assembly (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw) from..

Jonathan T. Chow , Leif-Eric Easley
Aung San Suu Kyi , Autonomy , China , citizenship , civil-military relations , democratic transition , ethnic nationalism , human rights , Rohingya , Rule of law
June 20,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2019)

In the spring of 2019, Chinese experts assessed China’s relations with the United States and Russia forty years after reform and opening began. They also evaluated China–Japan–South Korea and China–India–Russia relations. They analyzed the current US–Japan alliance and the US “securitization” of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Conspicuous in many of..

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)
Cold War , Diaoyutai/Senkaku , Dokdo/Takeshima , freedom of navigation , South China Sea , trilateralism , US-Japan alliance
June 17,2019 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 7, No. 3

Trade overshadows security with human rights and democratization left on the sidelines in DC gatherings in the spring of 2019. The Hanoi summit left US-North Korean ties in limbo, reducing their salience in discussions as few new details emerged and the next steps remained difficult to fathom. In the Trump-Abe summits (two in the spring with as many as three more possible before the end of ..

Editorial Staff
"Belt and Road" Initiative , 5G , free and open Indo-Pacific , G20 , Hanoi summit , Huawei , THAAD , trilateralism , US-Japan alliance