Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Bruce E Aronson, Creighton University
The ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s in Japan has now become two decades, with the latter marked by persistent deflationary pressure.
Beginning in the 1990s, the Japanese introduced short-term fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate the economy and ‘structural reform’ to achieve sustained economic recovery through a new post-industrial economic model. Read more…
Authors: Tim Lindsey, University of Melbourne, and Cate Sumner, Indonesia
Once routinely described as ‘Islam with a smiling face,’ the image of Indonesian Islam has been sullied in recent years by a noisy minority of radicals.
The toxic combination of the violent terrorism of Jemaah Islamiyah, vigilante gangs like the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam), inter-religious civil wars in eastern Indonesia, and local governments legislating conservative versions of sharia have all given the impression to some outsiders of an incipient takeover by what Indonesians call ‘hardliners’ (garis keras). Read more…
Author: Nina Merchant-Vega, The Asia Foundation
Since the 1980s, microfinance institutions in Bangladesh have touted the success of women micro-entrepreneurs in starting and operating thousands of microenterprises throughout the country.
While this is certainly an achievement, Bangladeshi women have not achieved the same level of success in the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) sector. Read more…
Author: Byung Min, Griffith University
Following the 1997 financial crisis, corporate governance reforms and government-initiated corporate restructuring were implemented in Korea.
In the past, the internally appointed board members tended to act as rubber stamps and failed to monitor the actions of the controlling shareholders. Read more…
Author: Pongphisoot Busbarat, ANU
Thailand is celebrating a newly elected female prime minister for the first time in its history.
Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai Party are forming a coalition government of 300 seats in parliament, although it may take up to a month to see the faces of new ministries and the coalition’s policies. Read more…
Author: Sumit Ganguly, IUB
In 1950, when newly-independent India adopted a democratic constitution, it formally abolished the seemingly atavistic institution of caste.
Under the Constitution’s terms, the age-old practice of ‘untouchability’, that had helped create and sustain a hierarchical social order with religious sanction, was officially drawn to a close. Read more…
Author: Evan A Feigenbaum, CFR
For more than a decade, creating multilateral forums has rivalled badminton as the leading indoor sport of Asian academics, think tanks and governments.
And the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as proposals multiply and Asians organise themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. Read more…
Author: Nurul Islam, IFPRI
Experts often feel they have answers to various questions confronting the country in their respective fields.
My experience leads to two observations about this state of affairs. Read more…
Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU
The idea that nation states possess a ‘strategic culture’ that directs their actions on the world stage was once popular.
George Tanham of Rand Corporation claimed that India’s international outlook was shaped by the hierarchical attitude deriving from caste and the then Brahmin-caste domination of key institutions. Read more…
Author: Jae Cheol Kim, Catholic University of Korea
Kim Jong-il’s visit to China in late May — his third in just over a year — was full of surprises for many observers.
It is difficult to find a precedent in any bilateral relationship for this diplomatic episode, which suggests that ties between China and North Korea have been elevated to the point where the two countries are conducting high-level visits without being restricted by the conventional diplomatic protocol of mutual exchanges. Read more…
Author: Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International
On 21 June at the US–Japan Security Consultative Committee (2+2) meeting in Washington, the US and Japan issued their single most important alliance-related joint statement since the release of their ‘common strategic objectives’ six years earlier during the Bush–Koizumi heyday.
Authors: Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly, ANU
Thaksin Shinawatra — and the multi-pronged political, commercial and social movement that bears his long-term imprimatur — has shown that, when it comes to winning elections, he is Thailand’s best.
His sister, Yingluck, will become Thailand’s first female Prime Minister. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
Yesterday Thailand went to the polls to elect a new government.
The electorate is deeply polarised politically despite the Abhisit government’s attempts at national reconciliation after killings on the streets of Bangkok 14 months ago. Read more…
Author: Nicholas Farrelly, ANU
Thailand goes to the polls today for only the second time since the military coup of September 2006.
That coup was designed to obliterate the election-winning juggernaut commanded by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Read more…
Author: Randall Peerenboom, LaTrobe University
Judicial independence is often assumed to be impossible in authoritarian regimes.
Yet even the most cursory glance at authoritarian regimes reveals that law plays a much larger role than commonly believed.