Author: Hugh White, ANU

No relationship in the world is more important than the US-China relationship. None is changing faster. And none is less clear in its long-term trajectory.

So it’s a strange and telling fact that Barack Obama has so far said nothing substantive about it, either as candidate or President. That makes this weekend’s visit to China an important event Read more…

Author: Tobias Harris

According to Helene Cooper of the New York Times, ‘President Obama arrived in Tokyo on Friday, at a time when America’s relations with Japan are at their most contentious since the trade wars of the 1990s.’

Cooper then proceeds to list the ways in which the transition to the DPJ has made for a ‘more contentious relationship.’ Read more…

Author: Wendy Dobson, University of Toronto

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s attendance at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Singapore this weekend shouldn’t be treated with a yawn – the meetings are part of a complex game in which our ideas, as co-chair with South Korea of the G7/G20 process in 2010, will count.

Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation could evolve significantly in the next few years. The unique region has the world’s four largest economies: China, India, Japan and the United States. China and India, the world’s most populous countries, are currently its most dynamic economies. Japan, with Australia’s help, has pushed for regional trade and financial institutions to attract the two increasingly important emerging giants into co-operating on regional projects, rather than pursuing rivalries. Read more…

Author: Bill Tow, ANU

Embarking on his first trip to Asia as President, Barack Obama returns to a region where he spent a portion of his childhood and where his popularity remains high despite his worsening political standing at home.

Obama confronts a landmark decision on intensifying the U.S. military commitment to Afghanistan, America’s unemployment rate, and the likely defeat of his health care package in the U.S. Senate. One might conclude that his nine-day Asian tour constitutes a sentimental journey back to the early days of his presidency when it seemed his own country and most of the world was at his feet. Nothing could be more deceptive. Read more…

Author: Daniel Kliman

Traveling at up to 300 kph and boasting an impeccable safety record, the Shinkansen exemplifies Japan’s technological prowess. It could also become a new frontier in the U.S. Japan partnership.

With the Obama administration committed to developing high speed rail, and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) looking to achieve a more equal relationship with the United States, the time is ripe for bilateral cooperation on an American shinkansen. Read more…

Author: Aurelia George Mulgan

At the heart of the US-Japan alliance has always been a grand bargain. The United States has provided defence protection for Japan under Article 5 of the Mutual Security Treaty, while Japan has provided bases for the US military under Article 6. Although not strictly under any treaty obligations, Japan has made greater military commitments to the alliance both regionally and internationally in order to compensate for the imbalance in security burdens.

The new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is tampering with this grand bargain. Read more…

Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner

Relations with North Korea seem heeded in a more positive direction after the Chinese PM Wen’s visit to Pyongyang, President Hu’s talk with Kim’s envoy and after the informal meeting between State Department official, Sung Kim and North Korean nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun in San Diego at the end of October. Yet tensions are still simmering with the naval clash between North and South Korea Monday the 9th.

On top of that Obama is going to tour the region starting Friday. Read more…

Author: Stephen Grenville, Lowy Institute

This article is the second part of a digest of a public forum at the ANU.

Ross Garnaut’s book, ‘The Great Crash of 2008’, is an important contribution to the ongoing critical discussion of the global economic crisis.

However, it lacks in one respect: the book is written as if Australia went through basically the same experience as the US.

In the US it was an old fashioned financial crash, like 1907 when JP Morgan locked the bankers in his library and told them that he wouldn’t let them out until they had sorted out the mess. Read more…

Author: Funabashi Yoichi, Asahi

With U.S. President Barack Obama scheduled to arrive Friday for a two-day visit, Tokyo and Washington are still fumbling to get on the same wavelength.

Although Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has repeatedly stressed that his government’s diplomacy would be centered on the alliance with the United States, many in the Obama camp have their doubts. Read more…

Author: Wendy Dobson, University of Toronto

APEC leaders’ agenda at their Singapore meeting on November 14-15 should include expanding membership to India when the ten-year moratorium expires in 2010.

A positive decision would have at least two significant implications. The APEC region is home to the world’s four largest economies (China, India, Japan and the United States) and it makes no strategic sense to exclude one of the four – especially when India is already a member of the East Asia Summit and the G20. Read more…

Author: Takashi Shirashi, GRIPS and IDE-JETRO

Since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power with Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister, its foreign policy — above all its positions on the Japan-U.S. alliance and the East Asian community building — has come under a spate of criticism at home and abroad.

Critics argue that it is contradictory to call for the building of an East Asian community while pledging to maintain the Japan-U.S. alliance as the cornerstone of Japan’s foreign policy. Read more…

Author: Andrew Elek

When they meet in Singapore, APEC leaders can take pride in what their economies have achieved.

Goods, services, people and capital are moving a lot more freely around the region compared to 1989. Obstacles to trade and investment , including border barriers, have been reduced more rapidly than in any other region.   Read more…

Author: Peter Drysdale

Next week end Asia-Pacific leaders gather in Singapore for their annual Summit, on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of APEC. The extraordinary dynamism and diversity of the region has shaped the way in which Asia-Pacific cooperation has developed in its own unique form. There is no supra-national authority that directs regional affairs in our part of the world. Nor is there likely to be for many years to come. This is sometimes explained in terms of how jealous the emerging nations of Asia are of their relatively new-found sovereignty — a throwback to the emergent nation state in eighteenth century Europe. But that is only half the explanation. The United States is also part of our region and more than most modern states is equally jealous of its sovereign powers and cautious of international arrangements that might bind them. Here in its ‘soft’ institutional structure, some critics argue, lies APEC’s weakness. But from another perspective APEC’s ‘soft’ institutional structure is its vital strength. It makes engagement and cooperation possible and productive where on other terms there would be none. Read more…

Authors: Peter Drysdale and Shiro Armstrong

This week Singapore hosts APEC and leaders from the 21 member economies. This year is APEC’s 20th anniversary, 20 years which have seen a remarkable transformation and growth of its East Asian member economies.

Did APEC have anything to do with East Asia becoming the most dynamic region in the global economy? Does APEC matter for its members? Does being a member of APEC, and associated with the growth of trade and investment in the most dynamic part of the world economy, make a difference? Read more…

Author: Andy Yee, University of London

On 1 August 2009, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the new NATO secretary general, took office. Surrounding this are recent debates over how NATO should engage with the recently expanded network of security actors. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is mentioned on several occasions.

In a conference in Brussels on July 7 about NATO’s new Strategic Concept, Carnegie Moscow Center Director Dmitri Trenin pointed out that NATO would be right to engage in a structured dialogue with the SCO, which has risen to become a platform for regional stability in Central Asia. Read more…