Author: Fumitaka Furuoka, University of Malaya

The usage of aid solely to support economic development and not for strategic reasons has been the bedrock principle of Japan’s aid policy since the country first began providing foreign aid to developing countries in 1954. Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter unequivocally declared a total prohibition of ‘any use of ODA for military purpose’. Read more…

Author: Julian Dierkes, UBC

Mongolia has been extraordinarily successful in building a foreign policy around the Leitmotiv of ‘third neighbours’ for the past 20 years. Reinforced by the country’s democratisation and the promise of mineral resources, this foreign policy has helped Mongolia claim much more attention on the global stage than one might expect from a vast country of only three million inhabitants. Read more…

Author: Ernesto M. Pernia, University of the Philippines

Recovering from the tragedy wrought by Typhoon Haiyan, the most potent typhoon ever to hit land in planet earth’s recorded history, is evidently no mean task. Difficult to estimate is the economic cost; virtually incalculable is the human cost, including lost human capital going to economic cost. Read more…

Author: Susan Harris Rimmer, ANU

Australia’s newly elected prime minister, Tony Abbott, has signalled that his government will move to incorporate the country’s overseas aid agency, AusAID, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

But what will this mean for the developing countries that currently receive Australian aid, and the people living in extreme poverty inside those states? Moreover, what does it mean for Australia’s overall soft power goals in the Asian century? Read more…

Author: Trevor Wilson, ANU

Australia hosted a high-level government delegation from Myanmar this week, led by President Thein Sein.

Thein Sein’s ambitious program of economic and political reform has surprised the international community since he assumed office in March 2011. Read more…

Author: Sai Latt, SFU

Myanmar’s Minister of Finance and Revenue, Hla Tun, revealed in February 2012 that the country has an external debt of US$11 billion.

This came as a shock to the public, who is still trying to reconcile the amount of the debt with the fact that people in Myanmar seem to get poorer every year.

Since the early 1990s developed countries have imposed economic sanctions Read more…

Author: Virginia Hooker, ANU

The Issues Paper that kick-started debate about Australia in the Asian Century is a provocative document.

It recognises the urgency of implementing national policies that will enable Australia to interact positively with Asia. Yet it fails to address two interlinked characteristics of Australian society: the ongoing anxiety about racial and religious difference and unease about socio-economic change. Read more…