Author: Li Mingjiang, RSIS
The recent annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — two of the most important political events in China — demonstrated the extent to which the country’s elite aspire to safeguard China’s interests in the East Asian seas.
But in his report to the NPC, Premier Wen Jiabao also vowed to prioritise efforts to improve relations with neighbouring countries. Read more…
Author: Mark Caprio, Rikkyo University
The Korean Committee for Space Technology, the space agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), confirmed on 16 March the DPRK’s plan to launch a Kwangmyongsong (Lodestar) 3 ‘earth observation satellite’ to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth.
The proposed launch has been criticised as yet another disruption to reconciliation efforts on the Korean Peninsula, as the announcement came just weeks after the DPRK agreed to freeze its nuclear program and refrain from testing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. Read more…
Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU
The Indian Ocean is Australia’s backyard — at least if you live in the west — and it plays a major role in transporting energy from the oil- and gas-rich Persian Gulf to Australia’s principal trading partners, China and Japan.
With each passing year, these and other East Asian powers become more dependent on the free passage of oil over the Indian Ocean. Read more…
Author: Carlyle A. Thayer, UNSW Canberra
Chinese civilian maritime surveillance vessels carried out a number of aggressive activities in parts of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam in early 2011, raising regional tensions and sparking concern in the US and throughout the region about maritime security.
This concern now seems largely abated, after diplomatic efforts produced a somewhat unexpected positive development. Read more…
Author: Colin McAskill, London
The death of Kim Jong-Il, and the dynastic succession of his youngest son Kim Jong-Un, brings negotiations over the DPRK’s nuclear program and objectives full circle.
When Kim Jong-Il succeeded his father there was then, just as now, no agreement in place that brought the DPRK’s nuclear programs and future ambitions under the auspices and supervision of any international nuclear monitoring authority.
Read more…
Author: Andrei Lankov, Kookmin University and ANU
Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have resumed in Beijing, and a deal was announced in late February.
North Korea agreed to freeze its uranium enrichment program and refrain from nuclear and long-range missile testing. In exchange, the US agreed to ship 240,000 tons of food aid to North Korea. Read more…
Author: Andy Yee, Hong Kong
A recent Bloomberg report declared the China-based hacking of hundreds of US companies a ‘cyber Cold War’.
In August 2010, after Japanese firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries became the subject of cyber attacks from China, one commentator in the Financial Times suggested that cyber threats might provide new common ground to re-energise the traditional military security alliance between the US and Japan. Read more…
Author: James Boyers, London
In August 2007, India began a tender process to acquire 126 medium-range, multi-role jet fighters to replace its ageing Mirage fleet.
In late January, the Indian government announced it had chosen the French consortium-led Dassault Rafale over the UK–German consortium-led Eurofighter Typhoon as the preferred bidder in the tender process. Read more…
Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU
Washington has now moderated Secretary for Defense Leon Panetta’s statement that the US, as a fighting force, would be in the barracks by mid-2013.
US forces may now come out to fight as and when necessary until their departure at the end of 2014. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
The whirlwind visit of President Barack Obama to Australia on the way to the East Asia Summit in Indonesia last November, many believe, forever changed the Asia Pacific strategic landscape with a re-assertion of American primacy and power in Asia.
What was the thinking behind the moves that Obama announced in Canberra and how will it shape Southeast Asia’s strategic future? Read more…
Author: Geoff Wade, ISEAS, Singapore
That US engagement with East Asia has grown in recent years is news to none.
But as the dust settles following President Obama’s announcement of the imminent stationing of US marine forces in northern Australia, it is perhaps time to assess what this development might augur for the broader East Asian region in the longer term. Read more…
Author: Wei Zhijiang, Sun Yat-sen University
After the death of Kim Jong-il in December, Kim Jong-un has officially become the supreme leader of North Korea and the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.
This is in addition to his position as the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Korean Workers’ Party, which was announced in September 2010. Read more…
Author: Ishrat Husain, IBA, Karachi
Pakistan’s economy remained sluggish in 2011 due to domestic political instability, energy shortages, deteriorating Pakistan-US relations, global climate change and internal security concerns.
For the fourth year in a row, GDP growth in 2011-12 will fall below its long-term growth rate. Read more…
Author: Anders Engvall, Stockholm School of Economics
On the evening of 25 October 2011 the southern Thai town of Yala was shaken by a string of 30 explosions that caused great terror and loss of life. The following day the neighbouring province of Narathiwat saw a similar wave of attacks.
This latest bombing campaign was a stark reminder from southern Thailand’s insurgency movement of the seventh anniversary of the Tak Bai massacre. Read more…
Authors: Greg Fealy and Sally White, ANU
Australia’s first academic conference on Indonesian terrorism was held at the Australian National University (ANU) early in December.
Entitled ‘Indonesian Terrorism in a Global Context’, the conference brought together researchers specialising in the study of Indonesia’s jihadists and scholars working on global trends in terrorism. Read more…
