Author: John Warhurst, ANU
The debate as to whether Australia should become a republic or remain a constitutional monarchy is at a paradoxical stage.
A majority of leading Australians in the private and public sectors support the change from a constitutional monarchy under the British crown to an Australian head of state. But many citizens remain undecided, after rejecting this constitutional change by 55 per cent to 45 per cent at a national referendum in 1999. Read more…
Author: Joseph Bosco, Washington DC
In his new book, Ezra Vogel gives Deng Xiaoping all the credit he rightly deserves for transforming China’s economic system and bringing higher living standards to hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese.
But he fails to note that Deng could never have succeeded without the willing and generous support from the West, especially from the US. Read more…
Author: Arief Ramayandi, ADB
The slow resolution of the European debt crisis has evolved into a liquidity problem which threatens the global financial system.
And these long-drawn-out efforts to address the sovereign debt problems have heightened uncertainties about resolving the crisis and induced speculative activities, threatening the survival of many European banks. Read more…
Author: Kam Wing Chan, University of Washington
With the US economy in the doldrums and Europe’s ongoing debt crisis continuing its downward spiral, analysts are left to wonder if China might be the saviour of the global economy or, rather, whether the country is simply a multitrillion bubble about to burst.
China’s great leap forward in public infrastructure and urban construction had, until quite recently, attracted the breathless admiration — and even envy — of the world, but now its latest frenzy of debt-driven investment and sagging urban housing prices have observers guessing again. Read more…
Author: Amritha Thiyagarajan, UNSW
Australia has been involved for a number of years in helping developing countries adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.
But while Australia’s recently passed carbon tax has stimulated much debate, there is little to no scrutiny of how Australian money is being allocated throughout adaptation projects at a grassroots level. Read more…
Author: Shigeki Hakamada, Aoyama Gakuin University
Still months out from Russia’s March 2012 presidential election and it is virtually certain that Vladimir Putin will return to the presidency.
Significantly for Asia, Putin called for the creation of a Eurasian Union shortly after announcing his intention to run. The plan, unveiled in a newspaper article on 4 October, is to achieve EU-style economic integration based on Russia’s customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus that would eventually encompass the whole Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Read more…
Author: Pravakar Sahoo, IEG
A falling currency may be normal and acceptable when the economy is slowing, but the rupee’s apparent free fall over the last few months — more than 15 per cent since August — is a serious blow to the Indian economy.
Though a depreciating rupee is not surprising given India’s international investment position, with its higher rate of liabilities than assets, such a sudden fall is worrisome. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
In Washington and Beijing last week there were important meetings that are likely to be influential in where the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations on regional trade arrangements lead down the track.
In Washington, the US administration called in ambassadors from the eight negotiating partners to up the ante on an early deal. Read more…
Author: Shiro Armstrong, ANU
In President Obama’s landmark speech in Canberra last month, an over-riding theme was that the United States welcomes China’s rise so long as it plays by the global rules.
Yet those rules are dynamic, and there is a need to have China involved in setting them given the scale of China and its importance to the regional and global economy, as well as to global security. Read more…
Author: Joel Rathus, ANU
The global financial crisis forced East Asian nations to get serious about regional architecture.
As global trade entered a precarious decline during the height of the crisis in 2008–09, one of the obvious areas of focus for East Asia was trade regionalism, aimed at making East Asia a more efficient production network and, over time, a final market in its own right. Read more…
Author: Hubert Wu, University of Melbourne
It is wrong to assess the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) against its short-term benefits — these may very well be non-existent. Instead, the deal’s true value hinges upon its chances of a medium-term expansion into Asia.
The TPP is an ambitious regional trade agreement under negotiation between ten economies: Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, Vietnam and as of early November, Japan. The Agreement has concluded its ninth round of negotiations in Lima, Peru, with an unofficial round also occurring recently at the 2011 APEC summit in Hawaii.
Read more…
Author: Fitrian Ardiansyah, ANU
The global climate change negotiations — underway from 28 November to 9 December in Durban, South Africa — have people asking once again whether countries around the world will agree on solutions to tackle climate change.
It is also an appropriate event to assess the involvement of developing countries like Indonesia, and particularly to understand whether their involvement in this UN climate conference will significantly contribute to a successful outcome. Read more…
Author: Ding Dou, Peking University
Resources and energy are vital to the ongoing China–Australia economic relationship.
China is now Australia’s largest trading partner and Canberra has repeatedly emphasised the importance of Australian resources to the relationship, while also noting the broader significance of such ties for both countries. But there will be mixed implications for the two sides going into the future. Read more…
Author: Alicia Mollaun, ANU
This year will be remembered as annus horribilis for Pakistan–United States relations.
CIA contractor Raymond Davis kicked off the downward slide when he gunned down two Pakistanis in Lahore, creating an enormous diplomatic immunity circus, which saw the media, politicians and even President Obama entering the fray. Read more…
Author: Renu Kohli, ICRIER
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) hands-off exchange rate strategy has resulted in a missed opportunity to curtail inflation.
Intervention in the foreign exchange market would have helped counter inflation; but the RBI has failed to grasp such a dexterous policy tool. Read more…
