Asia-Pacific Archive

SHANGHAI — Following a period of relatively aggressive behavior from 2009 to 2011, recent events suggest that Beijing is pursuing a new strategy on the region’s high seas, perhaps in response to Washington’s Asia pivot. China’s new approach involves asserting sovereignty through civilian actors on a day-to-day basis while adopting a less explicitly abrasive military posture. Going into this week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, where hopes for agreement on a maritime code of conduct are rising, it seems China would need to radically alter this strategy to participate fully in any such arrangement. For manifest geostrategic reasons, […]

Uzbekistan’s decision to withdraw from the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) highlights the dilemma confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin as he tries to strengthen Moscow’s pre-eminence among the former Soviet republics through the region’s multiple multilateral institutions. The CSTO and other Moscow-led regional organizations have important symbolic value to Russia regardless of their actual effectiveness, because they affirm Moscow’s strategic primacy in the former Soviet space. The other member states accept this arrangement since it can yield some tangible benefits, such as economic and military assistance, as long as it does not overly constrain their freedom of action. The […]

Across the developing world, the revolution in mobile telecommunications technology is driving massive changes in access to financial services. Currently, there are 2.7 billion “unbanked” people in developing countries (.pdf). They have few effective ways to save money; accessing credit and transferring money is difficult and expensive; insurance is a dream. Yet, to break cycles of poverty, the poor need access to affordable and versatile financial services. The rapid uptake of mobile phones, even in remote areas and among the poorest of the poor, has the potential to significantly increase financial inclusion. The Grameen Foundation estimates that nearly 40 percent […]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Mongolia on Monday on the second day of her Asia tour intended to boost U.S. economic engagement with the region. She praised the Asian country as a model of democracy and called it an “inspiration.” By visiting Mongolia, Clinton aimed to put to rest the idea that democracy is a Western ideal in conflict with Asian values, explained Stephen Noerper, senior vice president of the Korea Society. “It provided the U.S. with an opportunity to acknowledge and congratulate Mongolia on its path toward democracy and to quietly acknowledge the fragility of that and […]

China’s four-week standoff with the Philippines in May over the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea has brought the issue of Asian naval rivalry back to center stage. The anxiety is not confined to China’s neighbors in Southeast Asia, however. Maritime experts in India now worry about the increasing frequency and size of Chinese maritime contingents deployed in anti-piracy patrols off Somalia and the increasingly assertive stance adopted by China’s maritime policy community, no longer coy about discussing naval bases in the Indian Ocean. But if New Delhi is most concerned about China’s forays into the Indian Ocean, […]

Afghans hope the focus will be on corruption after donors offer 16 billion US dollars in aid at Tokyo conference. World News Videos by NewsLook

During his recent visit to New Delhi, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta highlighted the evolution of the annual Indo-U.S. naval war game Malabar from a passing exercise for the two navies’ ships into a full-scale engagement across all functional areas of naval warfare. Indeed, the steadily increasing complexity of Indo-U.S. naval force coordination has been a standout feature of an otherwise interest-driven relationship, suggesting Washington increasingly sees India as the western hinge of the U.S. pivot to Asia, with the U.S. Navy backstopping the shift from the Pacific. However, before the Indo-U.S. entente on the seas becomes a full-blown condominium, […]

In June, Vietnam asked the U.S. to end a ban on lethal weapon sales to the country in service of its ongoing military upgrade. In an email interview, Carlyle A. Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defense Force Academy, discussed Vietnam’s military modernization. WPR: What is the current size, scope and capability of Vietnam’s military, and what are the major gaps it is seeking to fill? Carlyle A. Thayer: The Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) totals 482,000 main forces, comprised of the army (412,000), navy (40,000) and air-defense air force (30,000). The armed […]

There are two simultaneous and contradictory trends occurring right now in the international system. The first is the diffusion of power, as reflected by the displacement of the old Group of Seven, which at its founding in the 1970s comprised the bulk of the world’s productive capacity, by the Group of 20, where there is no longer one dominant power capable of driving the global agenda. The second is the reality that the United States still far outstrips any other one state or group of states in terms of capabilities, ranging from the power of its currency to its ability […]

An activist in Korea who advocates unification was arrested by officials from the South in front of a chanting crowd of North Koreans at the border. World News Videos by NewsLook

Japan passed a law in June allowing the development of military space programs. In an email interview, Saadia M. Pekkanen, Job and Gertrud Tamaki professor at the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, discussed the strategic trajectory of Japan’s space program.* WPR: What is the current scope of Japan’s space program, and what are its priority programs, both short-term and long-term? Saadia M. Pekkanen: Japan has sophisticated rocket and satellite capabilities that allow it to continue up the ladder in space technologies. It has advanced liquid and solid-fuel rockets, as well as multiple satellite programs. These […]

Ichiro Ozawa, who helped bring the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to power three years ago, resigned from the party Monday over a proposed tax increase. In doing so, Ozawa and the 49 other members who followed him in the exodus weakened the parliamentary majority of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was trying to push through a bill that would double the national sales tax to 10 percent by 2015. Ian Neary, a professor of Japanese politics and director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at Oxford University, told Trend Lines that the cost of this latest round […]

More than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with most of the world’s attention having shifted to the threat of international terrorism, the Philippines and Peru are still struggling to pacify their countries’ communist insurgencies. Rather than fading into history, the Philippines’ New People’s Army (NPA) and Peru’s Shining Path have updated their rhetoric to reflect contemporary concerns in an effort to make their ideologies relevant to the “masses” in the post-Cold War era. The NPA and Shining Path, which were founded in 1969 and 1982, respectively, have not abandoned their discourse on Marxism and land reform, […]

When the U.S. approached eight countries with the idea to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it did not invite its North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) partners, Canada and Mexico, along. The exclusion of the two countries from what is being touted as potentially the most important economic bloc in the Pacific Rim was deliberate. The TPP seeks to liberalize trade by completely removing tariffs and other trade barriers, while also strengthening measures to protect intellectual property, two moves that Canada particularly had resisted within NAFTA. However, when the U.S., Australia, Malaysia, Peru and Vietnam join founding members Brunei, Chile, […]

Indonesian state oil company Pertamina signed an agreement in June with Timor Gas E Petroleo, the national oil company of Timor-Leste, to develop Timorese oil and gas. In an email interview, Cillian Nolan, a Southeast Asia analyst at the Jakarta office of the International Crisis Group, discussed relations between Indonesia and Timor-Leste. WPR: How have relations between Indonesia and Timor-Leste evolved since Timor-Leste’s independence? Cillian Nolan: Good relations with Indonesia were a priority from the beginning for Timor-Leste’s current leaders, but the relationship really began to grow following the establishment of the Commission on Truth and Friendship (CTF) in 2005. […]

A suicide attack outside Kandahar University kills seven a day after an Afghan policemen opened fire, killing three British soldiers. World News Videos by NewsLook