Asia-Pacific Archive

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editor, Omar H. Rahman, discuss Saudi King Salman’s landmark trip to Moscow and what the visit—the first by a Saudi monarch—says about Russia’s growing influence in the Middle East. For the Report, Salvatore Babones talks with Andrew Green about how geoeconomics is replacing geopolitics as the driver of international power politics, and why that is ultimately good for the United States. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines, as well as what you’ve seen on WPR, please think about supporting our work […]

Since the initial division of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II, there has been a distant hope in diplomatic circles, as well as among many Koreans, that the split might one day be undone. American officials have supported Korean reunification for years, and even China, which benefits from the buffer North Korea provides between its border and the U.S.-allied South, has quietly favored the idea at times of heightened tensions. In preparation for a possible reunion, South Korea funds a Ministry of Unification that studies strategies for bringing the two states closer—and last month financed an […]

When Panama cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of recognizing China in June, it was an acknowledgment of the significant commercial interests China already has in one of the most important transport and financial hubs in the Western Hemisphere. It also opened the door for deeper Chinese involvement in Panama. In an email interview, R. Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute and the author of “The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America,” explains what’s behind Panama’s diplomatic shift, the opportunities the move unlocks and what […]

As Myanmar’s long-simmering Rohingya crisis boils over into ethnic cleansing, refugee exodus and possible civil war, there are inevitable calls for economic sanctions to be reimposed on Myanmar’s military-dominated government. The outgoing Obama administration lifted U.S. economic sanctions on Myanmar, also known as Burma, in late 2016 in recognition of its partial transition to democracy under de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Now the Nobel Peace Prize laureate finds herself the subject of international condemnation for her failure to act toward, or even to speak in favor of, a peaceful resolution to the crisis. There is no hint of […]

The North Korean crisis is turning into a laboratory experiment about how to avoid war: with words, or with more demonstrations of force? While many in Washington would like to believe that diplomacy works hand in hand with deterrence and other instruments of American power, President Donald Trump seems to see diplomacy as working at cross purposes with his strategy. U.S. diplomacy has been on the defensive lately, unable to move some new crises—such as the ongoing dispute between Qatar and other Gulf Arab states, or the contentious referendum on independence in Iraqi Kurdistan—toward a peaceful resolution. It seemed like […]

September was Asia month at the United Nations. It began with the Security Council negotiating a set of severe sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s late-August nuclear test. It ended with the permanent members of the council trading barbs over the humanitarian crisis exploding in Myanmar. On Thursday, the council held its first public meeting on Myanmar in eight years to address the military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority in the northwest of the country. The discussion was the diplomatic definition of doing too little, too late. The military operation, reportedly involving the systematic destruction […]

When Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House last month, they tried to forge more common ground on key issues and manage some of their differences. Although Najib and Trump made some progress as they commemorated the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties between Malaysia and the U.S., bigger tests will come in their bid to surmount deeper obstacles that stand in the way of really broadening the relationship. Throughout the past 60 years, the United States and Malaysia have had to find ways to cooperate despite often stark disagreements on matters such as […]