Author: Frank Jotzo, ANU

Indonesia is among the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, and it has committed to cut its carbon footprint.

Can Indonesia achieve its goals, what is its role in the region, and how could developed countries assist?   Read more…

Author: Sam Byfield, Vision 2020 Australia

One of the notable recommendations of the Australian government’s Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness released in July was that Australia’s aid to China should be phased out.

The report and the Australian government’s response did not specify the time period likely to be involved, but the report made it clear that as China’s economic development continues, and its own aid program grows, Australia should focus its aid elsewhere. Read more…

Author: Veronica Taylor, ANU

The regulatory challenges faced in Asia have a magnetic effect on a group of less visible actors — foreign aid donors.

Multilateral institutions including the UN and its agencies, the World Bank and regional development banks, as well as key bilateral donors such as the US, Australia and the Netherlands spend in excess of US$2.6 billion per year on legal and regulatory reforms worldwide. Even greater sums are spent on security sector reform and military-funded rule of law in fragile and conflict-affected states. Read more…

Author: Ben Ascione, Waseda University

Since 1995 the US has ‘provided North Korea with over US$1.2 billion in assistance’ — about 60 per cent for food aid and about 40 per cent for energy assistance to North Korea.

The provision of this aid has raised difficult political, moral and policy dilemmas. Read more…

Author: Risti Permani, University of Adelaide

Videos showing Australian cattle being subjected to inhumane treatment in Indonesian abattoirs have prompted calls for an immediate ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia.

But is banning Australia’s only option? Read more…

Author: Stephen Robert Nagy, CUHK

The current disaster in Japan has provided an opportunity for Japan and China to further invest in their mutual international cooperation outside the security sphere such as the Six-Party Talks. It has done this in at least three ways.

First, China’s quick response in the wake of Japan’s largest recorded earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor crisis has demonstrated again that China and Japan can work together effectively and for their mutual benefit. 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…

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: Xiao Shu, Beijing

A natural disaster is not the worst of our fears: much worse is a society in disarray.

Japan’s most recent earthquake has once again reminded us all of the tragedy of the unpredictable and the futility of human strength. These days, no one can be completely safe from natural disasters; all of us live in an era of risk. Read more…

Author: Bob McMullan, ANU

Australia is committed to doubling its foreign aid budget by 2015. This is a commendable objective and one that bucks the trend among most other major aid donors.

In this context, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a review into ‘the efficiency and effectiveness’ of the Australian development assistance program. Ideally, this should be the last ad hoc review. Australia would be better served by a review model similar to the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) process initiated by US Secretary of State Clinton. Read more…

Author: Risti Permani, University of Adelaide

Few might think that the Australian state of Queensland’s recent natural disasters could have any link with the future of underprivileged students in Indonesian Islamic schools (madrasah).

But the Australian opposition Liberal Party’s proposal to cut aid for madrasah to avoid the Australian PM’s flood levy to pay for flood damage has raised concerns over the effect of diverting support for those schools on Australia’s counter-terrorism agenda. Read more…

Author: Takatoshi Ito, Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo

The G20 includes more Asian countries than any other global grouping, and it is expected to be a good forum for Asian countries to press their agenda.

The G20 Summit was created out of the chaos of the global financial crisis. After Lehman Brothers  collapsed in September 2008, global financial markets went into a tailspin. Securities markets were frozen as buyers disappeared. Read more…

Author: Peter Drysdale

The enormity of the human tragedy visited upon the people of Pakistan by the massive flooding that has affected a huge part of the country is only now beginning to sink in to the international community. The stories coming out of the disaster zone provide daily witness to the scale of the human crisis that Pakistan confronts. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, was among the first to send out a plea for international help. Perhaps it has taken longer to comprehend the scale and impact of what has taken place in Pakistan than it did after the Indonesian tsunami or the Haiti earthquake, but the wellsprings of human compassion and generosity seem to have responded more slowly than in the case of these earlier disasters. That is bound to change as people around the world begin to understand.

Certainly in Australia there is at last a huge elevation in public awareness, sympathy and response to what has happened. Read more…

Authors: Mohsin Khan, PIIE and Shuja Nawaz, Atlantic Council, Washington

The floods in Pakistan have affected one-fifth of the country (an area roughly the size of England) and engulfed large parts of all four provinces—Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the North West Frontier Province). The vast scope of the damage makes this a truly national disaster with long-term economic and political consequences. With waters still rising, it is far too early to assess the economic costs; a proper assessment will be made in time by the Government of Pakistan, assisted by the UN and the World Bank. But on the basis of early indicators, a preliminary and admittedly impressionistic view of the damage can be formed.

The immediate impact on the population is truly staggering—20 million people affected with 8 million in need of water, food and shelter; 1500-2000 killed; 4 million left homeless; and 15 million displaced. Read more…

Authors: Adil Khan Miankhel and Shahbaz Nasir, ANU

Pakistan is experiencing its worst natural disaster.  While the human toll of the disaster is bad enough, the collateral economic damage is catastrophic. Flooding is spread over all four provinces of Pakistan, affecting 20 million people, a population equal to Australia’s, and inundating a geographical area the size of England.

Louis-George Arsenault, director of emergency services for UNICEF, says the flood crisis in Pakistan is the biggest humanitarian crisis in decades. Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says the flood is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake. Read more…