Author: Abdur Chowdhury, Marquette University
Joining the WTO in 2012 marks the culmination of a long period of transformation for Russia, which first applied for membership in June 1993, and finally had its terms of entry accepted on 16 December.
To join the WTO, Russia has had to overhaul its national laws to bring them into conformity with the global trade regime, and work out bilateral market-opening deals with all other members. Russia has agreed to slash tariffs, get rid of industrial subsidies and allow foreign companies greater access to its domestic market. Read more…
Author: Nandita Dasgupta, UMBC
India’s food price inflation has been a major driving factor behind the country’s accelerating inflation over the past few years.
In particular, agricultural food prices rose sharply during 2011. Read more…
Author: M. Govinda Rao, NIPFP
India’s economy was one of the earliest to stage a turnaround after the global financial crisis.
The decisions taken in early 2008 to increase public-sector wages, forgive loans for farmers who had borrowed from the banks, and massively expand the rural-employment guarantee scheme assisted the economy before the global financial crisis unfolded in the last quarter of the year. Read more…
Author: Kimly Ngoun, ANU
The conflict between Cambodia and Thailand has made headlines around the world over the past few years.
The latest dispute was precipitated by Thailand’s failed effort to block Cambodia from unilaterally nominating Preah Vihear Temple — an ancient Khmer temple located within a disputed border area — as a World Heritage site.
Read more…
Author: Wei Zhijiang, Sun Yat-sen University
After the death of Kim Jong-il in December, Kim Jong-un has officially become the supreme leader of North Korea and the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.
This is in addition to his position as the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Korean Workers’ Party, which was announced in September 2010. Read more…
Author: Malcolm Cook, Flinders University
Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou and the Kuomintang (KMT) won a double victory at the 14 January elections. Ma was re-elected — albeit with a much smaller margin — and the KMT maintained a reduced majority in the Legislative Yuan.
Read more…
Author: Nitin Pai, Takshashila Institution
Taiwan’s presidential elections, since they first started in 1996, have in large part been referenda on the ‘One China’ policy.
Voters are generally offered two deviations from the status quo — either a path toward eventual reunification with mainland China or a path toward independence. Read more…
Author: Yoon Young-kwan, Seoul National University
After North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean frigate, Cheonan, and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, inter-Korean relations did not improve much in 2011.
There was limited official contact between the South and the North and between the US and the North to discuss the possible resumption of Six-Party Talks or food aid. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
In selecting his first cabinet and party executive line-up in September 2011, the most important motivation for Japan’s Prime Minister Noda was intra-party harmony.
His ministers were largely selected to appease political strongman Ichiro Ozawa, who maintains a well-deserved reputation for either running parties or destroying them. Read more…
Author: Scott A. Snyder, CFR
North Korea’s leadership succession from Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un has gone according to script.
The Korean Workers’ Party and the Korean People’s Army are supporting Kim Jong-un as North Korea’s new leader and North Korea’s propaganda machine has not missed a beat in announcing new titles, manufacturing accomplishments and portraying Kim Jong-un as a Great Successor worthy of the name. Read more…
Author: Michael Cucek, MIT Centre for International Studies
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffled his cabinet on 13 January, prior to the 24 January opening of the Diet’s regular session.
The reshuffle was preordained; the opposition-dominated House of Councillors censured two of Noda’s cabinet ministers on the last day of the extraordinary session last year. Read more…
Author: Mary Ditton, UNE
Migrants have escaped intra-national conflict within Burma by seeking refuge in Thailand for over 30 years.
But recent development projects in eastern Burma have further displaced segments of Burma’s ethnic population, with approximately 150,000 refugees now dispersed throughout nine refugee camps in Thailand. Read more…
Author: Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Chulalongkorn University
While Thai politics has long been unruly, it has rarely been so unsettled and intractable as in 2011.
Thailand has entered 2012 bruised and battered, even compared to previous bouts of political instability. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
In the latest episode in Pakistan’s unfolding political drama, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appeared before the Supreme Court on Thursday over the failure to prosecute corruption charges against his political patron, President Asif Ali Zardari, who came to power after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto.
This is no simple one-plot play about a contest over political corruption between the Supreme Court and the civilian government of Pakistan. Read more…
Author: Moeen Cheema, ANU
Pakistan experienced dramatic political crises in 2011, including the covert raid carried out by the US on 2 May, which killed Osama bin Laden, and the killing of two civilians by CIA contractor Raymond Davis.
It was in these circumstances that an American businessman of Pakistani origin, Mansoor Ijaz, wrote a ‘memorandum’ to the US military commander urging an intervention on behalf of Pakistan’s elected government, which seemed on the verge of being toppled by the country’s historically powerful military establishment. Read more…
