Asia-Pacific Archive

This past summer, as if on cue, seasonal floods across Pakistan killed more than 67 people and displaced thousands. For the past five years, Pakistan has experienced unusually severe monsoon rains in the summer. In 2010, flash and riverine floods destroyed 1.6 million homes, killed 2,000 people and displaced approximately 20 million. While flooding grabs the headlines, extreme heat actually has a greater impact on long-term population dynamics in Pakistan. A recent Nature study found that flooding has “modest to insignificant impacts” on long-term migration, while heat stress “consistently” increases long-term migration levels. The study combined data from a 21-year […]

By a fortuitous coincidence I found myself in Japan the week of the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which preceded the Japanese surrender in World War II. A special panel advising the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was divided over the wording of the government’s official statement, which is issued on major anniversaries of the war’s end. Should the words “aggression” and “apology” be used, or was “remorse”—the oft-employed substitute for a stronger expression—enough? Abe’s refusal to apologize for Japan’s colonial past, including its treatment of Koreans and other wartime atrocities, has divided Japanese political elites and […]

Since U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, met in Beijing last November, the United States and China have seen incremental progress in cooperation on climate change, Iran’s nuclear program and other areas, as well as continued strong trade. Yet these positive developments have been overshadowed by a deepening distrust over an array of other issues: the South China Sea, cyberespionage, the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the intensification of a human rights crackdown under an increasingly authoritarian Xi. With this gloomy and tense backdrop, Xi’s visit to the U.S. this week, starting Tuesday […]

After World War II, the United States reluctantly assumed global power. But most Americans considered this temporary, assuming the United States would disengage once Europe was back on its feet and the world’s war-torn regions were on the way to recovery. But by the time the Soviet Union finally collapsed and the Cold War ended 45 years later, Americans had become so accustomed to global power that there was little serious pressure for disengagement. Global power had become comforting and normal. Yet this, too, proved temporary. Now, weary after decades of containing the Soviet Union and 14 years of fighting […]

YANGON, Myanmar—Beginning in the early 2000s, China’s rise buoyed commodities markets and improved the fortunes of many resource-rich countries. Myanmar was no exception: Bilateral trade has expanded considerably, with China now accounting for approximately 40 percent of Myanmar’s imports and 15 percent of its exports. Although estimates vary significantly, data provided by Myanmar authorities to the World Trade Organization indicate that China, including Hong Kong, made up nearly 60 percent of approved investments in its southwestern neighbor between 2005 and 2012. Cumulative Chinese foreign direct investment in Myanmar has since exceeded $14 billion, with much of that bound for the […]

When the collapse of the Chinese stock market signaled a slowdown in China’s breakneck pace of economic growth, one could easily identify a long list of countries already showing symptoms of suffering a cold from China’s sneeze. Within that list, one country stands out, one where the impact will have potentially significant geopolitical consequences: Russia. When it comes to Russia, China’s challenges will have global implications. The only question is how severe that impact will be. The Chinese slowdown, to be sure, creates new problems for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his plans to rely on stronger links with Beijing […]

Ahead of Singapore’s general elections on Sept. 11, both major parties contesting the poll have said it will be definitive, even historic. At a press conference on Sept. 1, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore since the city-state was founded five decades ago, told reporters, “The country is at a turning point. Question is, in what direction do we now go?” That sentiment was echoed by Sylvia Lim, one of the leaders of the main opposition Workers’ Party. In some ways, election day will indeed be historic. For one, it is […]

At the end of July, following reports of Taliban chief Mullah Omar’s death, peace talks between Afghanistan and the Taliban to be held in China were canceled, striking a serious blow to China’s diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan. In an email interview, Kemel Toktomushev, a research fellow at the University of Central Asia, discussed China’s diplomatic outreach in Afghanistan and Central Asia. WPR: How active of a diplomatic role is China playing in Afghanistan, and how does China’s influence in Afghanistan compare to other international partners? Kemel Toktomushev: Indeed, Beijing is becoming more proactive in the region in general, and in […]

In late June, the Thai navy told reporters it had elected to buy three submarines from China. The billion-dollar purchase has yet to be officially finalized, and specifics regarding the decision remain murky. While the deal will move Bangkok one step closer to acquiring a capability it has lacked for more than six decades, it has become caught in a broader debate about Thailand’s perceived drift away from the United States and toward China following a coup last year. Thailand’s submarine quest is neither new nor surprising. The country has lacked a submarine capability since 1951 and has tried since […]

In late July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Beijing, his first state visit to China as president. Weeks earlier, back in Istanbul, Turkish nationalists enraged at the treatment of Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province had attacked Korean tourists, thinking they were Chinese, and stormed the Thai Consulate after Thailand deported a group of Uighurs who had fled China. With Erdogan pushing a more nationalist agenda to overcome a challenge from the right after his party’s electoral setbacks in June, most observers focused on whether China’s ethnic tensions and Turkish criticism of Beijing’s policies toward the Uighur minority could […]

Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. There was a time when “affairs of state” were seen as having nothing to do with women. That time is now over. Today we have a strong evidentiary base that links the situation and security of women to state-level outcomes across a wide variety of issue areas—from health, wealth and governance to national security and stability. These linkages are no longer obscure. And because they have been made visible, policymakers have begun […]

The victory by Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance in the Indian elections of May 2014 seemed to herald the start of a new era for India’s defense establishment. The new government came to power vowing to strengthen the Indian armed forces and reform the country’s jumbled and sluggish approach to defense acquisition. Such promises were music to the ears of Indian military planners charged with preparing for various conflict scenarios, including the possibility—however unlikely—of a two-front war versus neighboring rivals China and Pakistan. Under the new approach laid out by Modi’s government, the military modernization process was supposed to be […]