Author: Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International, Washington
On 19 July, the United States and India held the second meeting of their annual Strategic Dialogue, one of only a half-dozen such dialogue mechanisms that Washington has with other countries.
The budding US-India strategic axis has undoubtedly been one of the significant global geo-political undertakings of the past decade, and much has been written — oftentimes effusively — about its boundless promise in times ahead. Read more…
Author: Thomas Wilkins, University of Sydney
As a result of the 2007 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, Australia and Japan may now be considered close strategic partners.
Their interaction is reinforced and amplified by their formal military alliances with the United States, forming a triad through the Trilateral Security Dialogue (TSD). Read more…
Author: Luke Nottage, University of Sydney
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was one of the first among world leaders to visit Japan, over 20–23 April, after the nation was stricken on 3 March by the ‘earthquake-tsunami-radiation triple disaster’.
But the Australian government was tactful and realistic in not placing emphasis on progressing bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations at that time. Read more…
Author: Jochen Prantl, Oxford and RSIS
With the wide acceptance of global warming as both real and potentially problematic, geoengineering — defined by the UK’s Royal Society as ‘the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change’ — is currently experiencing a surge of interest.
Despite the differentiated nature of the challenges, the greatest risk and uncertainty for the Asia Pacific region will most likely arise from changes in the frequency of extreme weather events, which are very difficult to manage. Read more…
Author: Chun Peng, Oxford University
Accompanying China’s miraculous economic growth over the past decades have been its equally impressive urban regeneration and expansion.
This is characterised by the ever-modernising city landscape and a record-breaking rise in urbanisation rates from less than 20 per cent to over 40 per cent within 22 years. Read more…
Authors: David Abraham, CFR, and Meredith Ludlow
More than simply a domestic economic issue, the continued unsuccessful attempts by congressional leaders to raise the debt limit is becoming a source of international political concern.
Specifically, Congress’ implication that the US may not repay its debt unless the government restructures domestic spending is undermining American interests in Asia. Read more…
Author: R Kohli, ICIER
A combination of structural and cyclical factors has triggered a new wave of portfolio capital flows into emerging market economies.
Incorporating the fresh lessons learnt from the 2008 crisis, the policy toolkit of emerging markets economies has now been expanded to include capital controls. Read more…
Author: Aurelia G Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) issue is clarifying the lines of division between Japanese industrial and agricultural interests in a way not seen before.
The Great Eastern Earthquake is serving to solidify these lines even further because both sides are using the disaster to argue for and against trade liberalisation respectively. Read more…
Author: Maria Wihardja, CSIS
The world is biting its fingernails in anticipation of developments in the global economy and geopolitical landscape.
The Doha Round is on life support, and the OPEC talks on 8 June to increase the world’s oil supply have broken down. Read more…
Author: Ho-fung Hung, Johns Hopkins University
China recently experienced a spate of violent protests in the North and South.
Impressed by the scale and intensity of these incidents, some foreign media have portrayed them as preludes to a bigger wave of grassroots resistance that could crack open the authoritarian state. Read more…
Author: Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, PIIE
As the uneven global economic recovery continues, with the emerging economies growing at roughly three times the pace of advanced economies, comprehensive reform of the principal institutions through which global economic governance is enacted becomes ever more urgent.
With emerging economies already accounting for about half of the global economy and the vast majority of current and future global economic growth, securing an adequate voice for this traditionally underrepresented group in global economic governance must be a priority. Read more…
Author: Claude Barfield, AEI
After Congress passes FTAs with Korea, Columbia and Panama, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) will become the single most important US trade initiative, serving as a building block for a larger Free Trade Area for the Asia Pacific Agreement (FTAAP).
TPP negotiators aim for a comprehensive 21st century FTA. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
The radical changes that have taken place in both China’s economy and society have also produced a significant measure of political reform.
But political reform has lagged, and governments in China appear very different from the various forms of representative government that characterise industrial countries in the OECD group. Read more…
Author: Tony Saich, Harvard University
While radical changes have taken place in both China’s economy and society, political reform has lagged.
The central leadership seems well aware of the problems confronting it and has responded with calls for better and more transparent government and for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to monitor itself and the actions of government more effectively. Read more…
Author: Andrew Elek, ANU
Sixty years ago, when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established, trade in goods was the dominant form of international commerce and traditional, transparent border barriers, such as tariffs and quantitative restrictions, were the main impediments to that trade.
A recent report on challenges to the WTO and the international economic regime explains that the nature of international commerce has changed considerably. Read more…
