October 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (October 2014)

Ukraine (Russia), South Korea, India and, as usual, Japan attracted keen attention for their potential to alter the geopolitical environment in Asia. Ukraine’s significance is its impact on Russian relations with both the United States and China. In the case of South Korea its tensions with Japan and forward-looking diplomacy with China led to questions about the strength of its alliance with th..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Civilizations , hegemonism , India , Look East policy , New Cold War , new defense guidelines , Ukraine , US-ROK alliance
October 20,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2014)

Hopes for Japanese diplomacy had grown faint in the late summer of 2014. Russian relations had stalled, as Russia flexed its muscles with rare military exercises on the islands in dispute. North Korea was delaying a report on the abductees, which Japan had been expecting in the middle of September. Possible meetings on the sidelines of APEC in November between Abe and Xi Jinping or Park Geun-hye r..

Editorial Staff
ASEAN Asian dream , comfort women , Eurasian diplomacy , Japanese Abductees , Northern Territories , Putin’s visit , sanctions , Thailand , Ukraine , US pressure
October 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 area continues to be the object of their maneuvering despite China’s increasing e..

Editorial Staff
demonization , India , multilateralism , Southeast Asia , Territorial Disputes , triangular relations , Vietnam
October 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 and Japan. Although Vietnam’s relationship with China i..

Mark Manyin
Arms sales , ASEAN , collective self-defense , communist party , equidistance , great power rivalry , oil rig , South China Sea , the Philippines , tourism
October 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 unfolded over Southeast Asia. In 2013-201..

Gilbert Rozman
Asian values , Asianism , Australia , East Asian Community , Fukuda Doctrine , India , Rebalancing , Regionalism , Revisionism , South China Sea
October 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 maritime disputes in the East China and South China seas, discuss..

Editorial Staff
ASEAN centrality , India , Indo-Pacific region , North Korean outreach , Park-Xi Summit , peaceful unification , Southeast Asia
October 15,2014 Open Forum

Can Indonesia Fulfill Its Aspirations to Regional Leadership?

There is much talk today about Indonesia’s rise and aspirations to regional leadership as a middle power. Supporters of this proposition often cite a raft of facts and statistics to validate this claim: Indonesia’s impressive economic growth rates in recent years (averaging 6 percent) relative to other Asian countries, its young population and vibrant democracy, its size and enormous natural r..

Liow Joseph Chinyong*
ASEAN Security Community , Bali Democracy Forum , Cambodia , Indo-Pacific Treaty , Indonesia , Malaysia , Philippines , regional leadership , Singapore , Thailand
October 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 mutual hostility to a mu..

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
ASEAN , flight MH370 , hedging , Malaysia , Philippines , PLA navy , South China Sea , threat perceptions , tourism , Trade