Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Katherine Morton, ANU
Transnational and non-militarised challenges to the security and wellbeing of states and peoples are now central to the evolving international security agenda.
The discourse on non-traditional security (NTS) is redefining perceptions and pushing the boundaries of security cooperation at regional and global levels. Read more…
Author: Kevin Boreham, ANU
The Security Council’s authorisation in Resolution 1973 of 17 March of ‘all necessary measures to protect Libyan civilians and civilian populated areas’ applied the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
The application of this mandate by the American- and European-led coalition in Operation Odyssey Dawn has exposed R2P to attack as a cover for regime change. Read more…
Author: Deborah K. Elms, NTU
Trade officials across nine countries will meet in Singapore from 28 March 2011 for the latest round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
This is the sixth time officials have met for the TPP — pitched as a ‘21st century, high-quality’ agreement — with the goal of completing the agreement by the November APEC meeting in Honolulu. Read more…
Author: Ernest Bower, CSIS
The Cable’s Josh Rogin shared an open secret in an edition last week, namely that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton does not plan to continue in the Obama administration should the president win a second term in office. A post-Clinton Foggy Bottom is a real concern for Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia’s worry is this: Clinton and Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell clearly saw the need and opportunity to engage the region, and they grasped it — firmly and decisively. Read more…
Author: Dennis T. Yasutomo, Smith College
Media reports indicate that after the 11 March earthquake, Japanese residents of Sendai had a 30 minute warning before the tsunami hit. In a sense, the Japanese had expected this for 30 years. The longer-term question is what will happen in the next 30 years.
In 1980, the Japanese government adopted ‘comprehensive national security’ (‘sogo anzen hosho’) as its security doctrine, and comprehensive security stepped outside US military-centric thinking for the first time. Read more…
Author: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Council on Foreign Relations
I have a new article out in The Washington Quarterly, with a slightly provocative title, ‘Why America No Longer Gets Asia.’
It’s a think piece. And so it probably won’t be 100 per cent persuasive to 100 per cent of its readers in 100 per cent of its aspects. Read more…
Author: Huw McKay, Westpac and ANU
The great misfortune of Japan’s earthquake will shape the contours of economic activity in the country for some time to come.
Japanese private sector estimates of the economic cost are centring on 3 per cent of GDP. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale
The Chinese economy continued to grow fast through the global financial crisis, spurred by a huge fiscal stimulus that pushed domestic spending out. The impact of the crisis on China was remarkably short-lived, especially given that it hit at a time when a domestic-slow down was only beginning to kick in.
The imperative of avoiding prolonged unemployment and the consequent risks of social instability saw Chinese authorities turn the economy around on a dime. China, and other emerging economies, have been a welcome bull element in the global economy. Read more…
Author: Yang Yao, Peking University
China’s exports have resumed their robust growth since last year. The World Bank predicts a 3.5 per cent growth rate for the world economy this year, and most analysts also predict that the US economy will grow at a similar rate.
As a result, external demand for China’s exports will be strong. Read more…
Author: Chris Marchalleck, Forex Traders
In the early morning of Friday 18 March, the G7 acted in harmony as each member sold billions of yen in an attempt to bring order to the foreign exchange market.
Author: Ritu Mathur & Manish Shrivastava, TERI, India
India’s future energy scenario poses increasing challenges on account of energy security as well as environmental considerations.
With an installed generating capacity of less than 150,000 MW and a per capita consumption of a mere 650 units of electricity per annum, India is plagued with huge electricity shortages, estimated at around 11 per cent in energy terms and almost 12 per cent in peak demand in 2008/09. Read more…
Author: David Brewster, ANU
Bangladesh’s recent announcement of a deal with Russia to construct its first nuclear reactor marks a broadening of the nuclear gold rush in South Asia.
The latest deal is part of a big expansion of nuclear generation throughout the region. Read more…
Author: Vikas Kumar, Bangalore
Bangladesh is not only one of the most densely populated countries in the world, but it is also among the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters.
In the foreseeable future, climate change is likely to accentuate these crises, and increasingly, Bangladeshis will attempt to make their way to India. Read more…
Author: Christopher Len, ISEAS
On 11 March 2011 an earthquake measuring 9.0 struck the Tohuku region on the east coast of Japan, causing a tsunami which resulted in death, injury and people missing.
It also caused extensive and severe damage to Japan’s infrastructure. Strong aftershocks have since rattled parts of Japan. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said that his country is facing its worse crisis since World War II. Read more…
Author: Sebastian Maslow, Tohoku University
Both the political and scholarly debates over whether we can expect Japan to join the ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership’ (TPP) centre on the question of whether the DPJ-led government will be able to overcome the immense domestic political resistance by Japan’s agricultural lobby.
In promoting a zero-tariff policy across all industrial sectors, the TPP is a challenge to Japanese farmers who have long sought protection from global free trade and competition behind a massive wall of tariffs and other barriers to trade. Read more…