February 27,2015 Review Article

‘Sengo 70nen hoshu no Ajiakan’ [‘The Asian Views of Conservatives over the Postwar 70 Years’]

Wakamiya Yoshibumi, Sengo 70nen hoshu no Ajiakan, [The Asian Views of Conservatives over the Postwar 70 Years] (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun shuppan, December 25, 2014) In the face of an unrelenting onslaught of criticism from Japanese conservatives, the progressive side, led by Asahi Shimbun, continues to make its case. Unlike the era of the Cold War, when the principal foreign policy divide was the U..

Gilbert Rozman
collective self-defense , conservatism , hereditary leadership , Revisionism , Shinzo Abe , Yasukuni Shrine
February 27,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: China (February 2015)

An article by Zhong Feiteng in Waijiao pinglun describes China’s new Asian strategy. It observes that Europe has been the geopolitical center and Asia the periphery, and Great Britain and the United States have reigned as the leaders of the international system. With China and India rising, in the 21st century Asia is becoming the global geopolitical center, but this has caused the United States..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
ASEAN , Cool Japan , Indo-Pacific strategy , Korean wave , Maritime Silk Road , Peaceful Development , Ukraine
February 16,2015 Open Forum

Making Sense of the Russo-North Korean Rapprochement

Although the six-party process about North Korean nuclearization is moribund if not dead, ongoing informal discussions among those parties are robust and ever evolving. Because these multi-party relationships are so protean, they force us to devise an analytic framework for them. After all, these talks are about much more than Korean denuclearization. They represent an embryonic or miniature versi..

Stephen Blank
Ostpolitik , pivot to Asia , rapprochement , Ukraine
February 16,2015 Open Forum

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik 1 On October 18, 2013, at an international conference on Eurasian cooperation in Seoul, Park Geun-hye proposed the “Eurasia Initiative.” Under the watchwords of “one continent, creative continent, and peaceful continent,” the initiative projects a unified system of transport, energy, and trade networks across ..

Kim Taehwan*
Eurasia Initiative , NAPCI , National security , Nordpolitik , pivot state , Regionalism , trust-building
February 10,2015 Open Forum

Synopsis of Five-University Collaboration, Dec. 2014

Agenda: Five University Collaboration on East Asia Security Conflict & Cooperation File Download In mid-December, faculty and graduate students at five universities in five countries met again to exchange views on the state of security in East Asia. Prior conferences had produced thoughtful, constructive exchanges, but no reports were circulated on what they covered and how they served to st..

Editorial Staff
Obama-Xi Summit , Six-Party Talks , TPP , Trustpolitik
February 10,2015 National Commentaries

A Japanese Perspective

"The India-Japan Special Global Partnership and the United States"   On the Republic Day of India, January 26, 2015, the Embassy of India in Tokyo hosted a national day reception at Hotel Okura Tokyo. Hundreds of people paid their respects to the ambassador and expressed friendship toward India. A similarly large crowd gathered at the same event last year, which coincided with P..

Takenaka Chiharu*
Abenomics , Make in India , Modinomics , Republic Day parade
February 10,2015 National Commentaries

An Indian Perspective

"India-US relations:Developments from the Fall and Winter of 2014 to the 2015 Modi-Obama Summit"   Between Symbolism and Substance: An Assessment of Obama’s India Visit   Taking a step forward from his September 2014 state visit to the United States, Prime Minister Modi invited President Obama to visit India as the Guest of Honour at the 66th Republic Day celebrations. ..

Rahul Mishra
2+2 Ministerial , BIT , civil nuclear deal , climate change , CliND , defense cooperation , qualitative reinvigoration , Totalization Agreement
February 05,2015 Special Forum

Abe Shinzo: Japan’s Most Consequential Prime Minister since Yoshida Shigeru

Introduction to Special Forum Abe Shinzo: Japan’s Most Consequential Prime Minister since Yoshida Shigeru   The year 2015 promises to be a milestone in Japan’s transition from a defeated state remaining on the defensive over its history with a low strategic profile, to a proud and proactive force for the reorganization of Asia within the US-led international community. Abe Shinzo i..

Editorial Staff
Abenomics , comfort women , commemorations , Shinzo Abe , TPP , Yasukuni Shrine
February 05,2015 Special Forum

The Foreign Policy of Abe Shinzo: Strategic Vision and Policy Implementation

On January 5, 2015, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo reaffirmed that his government will continue to pursue a “proactive contribution to international peace” in his first press conference of the new year. When asked about the statement he is anticipated to issue at the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in relation to his government’s view on Japan’s past history, Abe confirmed that it w..

James Przystup , Tatsumi Yuki*
ASEAN , collective self-defense , Futenma base , India , Japan-US alliance , ODA , Territorial Disputes