Author: Vikas Kumar, Bangalore

Both the Chinese and Indian media suffer from hysteria over an impending Sino-Indian War and occasionally indulge in competitive jingoism.

The hysteria usually begins with some obscure news item or opinion piece published in one country regarding the offensive preparations from the other side of the Himalayas and quickly escalates to a ‘we-will-give-a-fitting-reply’ kind of exchange. Read more…

Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Indonesia

This year’s BRIC Summit, to be held in mid-April in China, will mark the entry of South Africa into membership of the group.

The economies of BRICS (now with the addition of ‘S’ for South Africa) will also prepare for the G20 Summit to be held later this year. BRICS, for which the combined economy is predicted to overtake the US by 2018, is not only an emerging economic power but also an increasingly influential political power; and China, acting as a global regime maker instead of a regime taker, is leading the way. Read more…

Author: Naohiro Yashiro, ICU, Tokyo

There seems a bit of a consensus among foreign economists that Japan needs more labour market flexibility.

Most Japanese policy makers and researchers, however, believe otherwise. So there is no real push for reform. Read more…

Author: P K Ghosh, ORF

The Indian Ocean is a very ‘active’ ocean, perceived by many as the emerging centre of gravity in the strategic world.

Thus, the words attributed to  the maritime strategist Alfred Mahan ring true: ‘Whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia, the destiny of the world will be decided on its waters.’ Read more…

Author: Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University

The Doha Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) is the first negotiation to take place under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO), founded in 1995.

The eight previous rounds of global trade talks were conducted under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), following its creation in 1947. Read more…

Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW@ADFA

The DPJ is not the party of structural reform in the agricultural sector. It designed its agricultural policies to win farmers’ votes, including small-scale farmers who are in the majority.

Its policy of direct income subsidies provides incentives for small-scale farmers to stay in business. The policy was inserted into the party’s 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 manifestoes, and over time it became more expansive and generous in scope and even less reform-oriented than the LDP-Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) scheme which left out small farmers. Read more…

Author: Peter Drysdale

The horror and devastation of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan continue to stun people all over the world — nowhere more so than in Japan itself, of course, where continuing anxiety is mixed with the numbness that such tragedies suffuse over the human psychology.

This is an awful period for the nation, picking itself up after being partially flattened. It is a period of helpless acceptance of loss. It is a period of struggling to find reasons where there are none. Read more…

Authors: Sisira Jayasuriya and Nobu Yamashita, Latrobe University

The scale of the humanitarian and economic cost of the Japanese Tohoku-Pacific Coast disaster is yet to be fully assessed due to ongoing uncertainties about the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Yet it is quite clear that this is a greater catastrophe than the 1995 Kobe earthquake. In terms of the magnitude of death and destruction, as Prime Minister Naoto Kan described it, this is the biggest disaster that Japan has experienced since the end of the Second World War.

The challenge of recovery goes well beyond the physical reconstruction and replacement of destroyed infrastructure and capital assets. Nothing can compensate for the human and social costs of deaths, injuries, dispossession and the psychological trauma of the disaster. Read more…

Author: Jenny Corbett, ANU

French President Sarkozy is the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the disasters of early March. His visit has been welcomed in Japan and has partly restored the unfortunate impression that the French jumped ship early by evacuating all their nationals.  Well-timed, symbolic gestures of support can have great impact. Would this be a good moment for a high-level gesture of goodwill, respect and support from Australia?  Absolutely. But a mere repetition of the mantra that Japan is our most strategically important ally in the region would be a wasted opportunity. These circumstances provide an important moment to take the bilateral relationship one big step towards new levels on many fronts.

On the humanitarian front Australia can offer assistance beyond aid and rescue teams. Read more…

Author: Benjamin Fox, Tunghai University

As the effects of climate change in Asia become more obvious every year, carbon emission reduction policy in the region remains largely inadequate.

During the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, most of Asia’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting nations were considered developing countries and therefore not held to internationally binding agreements to reduce emissions. Read more…

Author: Conrad Guimaraes, APYO

Whether it is exemplified by the US$45 billion World Expo last year, or its possession of the world’s largest (by tonnage) port, Shanghai is an outstanding symbol of Chinese growth.

Now an economic hub of the East, Shanghai’s qualities do seem to be a microcosm of China itself. Could the understanding gained through the city’s recent prosperity be extrapolated on to form the basis of something to the effect of a ‘Shanghai Consensus?’ Read more…

Author: Mukul G. Asher, NUS, and Rahul Sen, AUT

As part of a broader objective of deeper economic integration with Asia, New Zealand embarked last year on negotiating a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with India, one of the rapidly growing emerging markets in Asia.

Three rounds of negotiations have now been completed, with the fourth round of negotiations scheduled in New Delhi this month. Read more…

Author: Sanusha Naidu, Human Sciences Research Council

This year has certainly started off on a high note for South Africa’s foreign policy ambitions. Assuming its two-year non-permanent rotational seat on the United Nations Security Council and becoming the fifth member of BRIC, it is clear that the charm offensive of President Zuma’s 2010 BRIC foreign policy diplomacy has paid off.

Of course for some analysts, like Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill, South Africa was not seen as a suitable candidate. O’Neill is recorded as saying: ‘It is not entirely obvious to me why the BRIC should have agreed to ask South Africa to join. Read more…