Authors: Dong-Joon Park and Danielle Chubb, Pacific Forum CSIS, Honolulu

South Korea and Japan both consider the islands, known alternatively as Dokdo (Korea) and Takeshima (Japan), as part of their own respective territories.

The dispute over them has been a spoiler, on and off, over the course of their bilateral relationship. Read more…

Author: Lex Rieffel, Brookings Institution

In a primer on sovereign debt restructuring published eight years ago, I noted that ‘None of the mature democracies in the world have come close to a sovereign default in the Bretton Woods era’.

What was true then is not true now, and the world is worse off because of it. Read more…

Author: Pravakar Sahoo, IEG

In its latest monetary policy review, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), continuing with its tight monetary policy, revised policy rates upwards for the eleventh consecutive time.

Both the repo rate and the reverse repo rates went up by 50 basis points to 8 per cent (from 7.5 per cent) and 7 per cent (from 6.5 per cent) respectively. Read more…

Author: Hitoshi Tanaka, Japan Center for International Exchange

The balance of power in East Asia is shifting, presenting new risks to regional stability.

In order to mitigate these risks and maintain and strengthen regional peace, stability, and prosperity, it is critical that regional cooperation be consolidated. Read more…

Author: Evan A Feigenbaum, CFR

In a recent post, my CFR colleague, Liz Economy asks: ‘What will Vice President Biden find in China?’ I thought I’d try out my own response to this very direct question.

First, Biden will find a China whose rise depends on economic growth but whose growth model is no longer sustainable.  Read more…

Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF

Looked at from the outside, it’s a little difficult to understand why the political leadership in Japan is now under such intense pressure about its handling of the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

The approval ratings of Prime Minister Kan’s DPJ government plummeted after an initial lift and created an opportunity for enemies within his own party to challenge his leadership — a challenge he managed to fend off by declaring that the time was not right for him to resign but that he would do so later. Read more…

Author: Gerald Curtis, Columbia University

The Japanese Earthquake and tsunami left more than 25,000 people dead or missing. It damaged or destroyed 125,000 buildings, and spread an estimated 27 million tons of debris over a wide expanse of the northeast Pacific coast.

The media and the political opposition have been unrelenting in their criticism of Prime Minister Kan. Less than 20 per cent of the public now support the prime minister. More than 70 per cent disapprove of the way he has dealt with the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Disaster, and would like to see him resign before the end of August. But the public entertains no illusions that the political situation will improve with Kan’s resignation. With no political leader having captured the public’s imagination, support for the DPJ, LDP and other parties is in free-fall. Read more…

Author: Ong Kian Ming, UCSI University

The heart of Kuala Lumpur is usually chock full of traffic on a weekend. But on Saturday 9 July downtown KL was eerily empty of cars.

Police presence, however, was very noticeable, in the form of roadblocks positioned at major roads leading into the city, fire trucks equipped with water cannons, and helicopters hovering overhead. Read more…

Author: Ken Jimbo, Keio University

The sinking of the Cheonan and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 raised concerns for both the South Korean and US governments that North Korea may no longer be conventionally deterred.

The two governments have been reviewing how their basic and extended deterrence policies should be reorganised to adapt to this new dimension in North Korea’s behaviour. Read more…

Author: Nurhisham Hussein, Economics Malaysia

An interesting experiment is going on in Malaysia. The administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak has embarked on an economic transformation plan that marks a clear departure from the development plans of Malaysia’s past.

In years past Malaysia’s development plans, while ostensibly focusing on economic growth and structural changes, had been in actuality little more than budget priorities for the federal government. Read more…

Author: Harry White, London

A world in which America is strong is a better one, particularly for its allies in the Anglo-sphere and Western Europe.

But, since 2001, the US government has been indulgent — something which it cannot afford to be over the coming decades. At the Republican debate in New Hampshire in June there were signs of change. Read more…

On 9 July around 50,000 Malaysians marched peacefully in support of free elections, defying a government prohibition and massive police effort.

Police eventually dispersed demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas and arrested nearly 1,700. Several were injured (including the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim) and one died from injury. Read more…

Author: Bill Standish, ANU

The opposition’s nomination of Works Minister Peter O’Neill as Papua New Guinea’s new prime minister on 2 August came as a shock to many.

But there were clues in some earlier press comments. Read more…

Author: Takashi Terada, Waseda University

ASEAN’s function is often described as being limited to a ‘talk shop’ that merely provides venues where ministers and leaders from larger states join together to exchange views on regional security and economic issues.

So long as the so-called ‘ASEAN Way’ — which informally stipulates non-intervention, non-binding and consensus-based decision-making approaches to regional cooperation — is maintained, ASEAN’s major role will not go beyond hosting the ‘talk shop’. Yet the talk shop’s value could be enhanced if delegates discussed the hard issues, regardless of whether any binding obligations ensued. Read more…

Author: James Ingram AO, AIIA

While the end of the Cold War diminished credible potential threats to national security, successive Australian governments have continued to treat the ANZUS alliance as the indispensable foundation of our foreign policy.

The critical issue of global politics affecting Australian security for the indefinite future will be competition between China and the United States for regional and global hegemony. Read more…