June 16,2016 National Commentaries

A View from the United States: Defending Camelot

President Obama’s final G7 summit meeting occurred against the backdrop of a world in which the core values espoused by the G7—democracy, the free-market economy, and respect for international norms of security and human rights—are increasingly under stress. The very fact that this was a G7 rather than a G8 meeting underscored the recent setbacks […]

Frank Jannuzi
Brexit , Consensus-building , International norms , Musudan IRBM , TPP , UNCLOS Tribunal , US nuclear deterrence
June 16,2016 National Commentaries

A View from Germany

The summit in Ise-Shima was already the third G7-meeting without Russia. (Germany had hosted the previous gathering in Elmau in 2015.) Japan, thus, worked particularly closely with Germany in coordinating the substance of this summit. This is evident from the importance given to issues such as global health, climate change, and women’s empowerment and gender […]

Hanns W. Maull
German-Russian cooperation , ITLOS , Leaders' Declaration , Quantitative easing , Three arrows , UN sanctions regime , Wandel durch Annäherung
June 16,2016 National Commentaries

A View from Japan

No other diplomatic event in recent years has benefitted Prime Minister Abe Shinzo more than the G7 Ise-Shima summit held on May 26 and 27. G7 summits held annually since 1975 (transforming into the G8 and back) have rarely been occasions to make historic decisions; they are more often occasions for the leaders of the […]

Tanaka Akihiko*
Consumption tax , G7 Ise-Shima Summit , G8 Okinawa Summit , Global Fund , Health , Hiroshima visit , Infrastructure , Internationalism , Okinawa ID Initiative , Women
April 28,2016 National Commentaries

A View from the United States

Inadvertent escalation or Chinese expansion? Two very different fears compete for attention in the proliferating discourse on the risk-rich imbroglio  of the South China Sea. Some fear an inadvertent escalation that may unnecessarily trigger war. Others fear Chinese expansion that prepares for its hegemony. Only Xi’s China cultivates a priority fear of American expansion. Many […]

Donald K. Emmerson
Nine-dash line , Pax Sinica , South China Sea , sovereignty , UNCLOS
April 28,2016 National Commentaries

A View from Australia

From Indonesia’s perspective, the defense of its territorial waters from incursions and the protection of its natural resources from exploitation are key priorities. China’s aggressive behavior in reclaiming the fishing vessel fits a pattern of belittling Southeast Asian states by flaunting their sovereignty. On March 19, the policies of these two countries collided when Indonesian […]

Natalie Sambhi
Global Maritime Fulcrum , Maritime security , Natuna Islands , non-alignment , Pribumi
April 28,2016 National Commentaries

A View from Indonesia

On March 20, 2016, a Chinese coastguard vessel intruded into Indonesia’s territorial sea near the Natuna Besar Island, the largest island in Indonesia’s Natuna Islands located in the South China Sea. The coastguard vessel intended to stop a Chinese fishing vessel, Kway Fey 10078, from being towed by an Indonesian fishery patrol boat, KP Hiu […]

Ristian Atriandi Supriyanto
code of conduct , Illegal fishing , Indonesian-Sino March confrontation , Nine-dash line , sovereignty
February 12,2016 National Commentaries

A South Korean Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   Despite the practical necessity of trilateral security cooperation among the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japan, conditioned by changes in the security environment in and around the Korean Peninsula, the Park administration has maintained a kind of lukewarm or cautious attitude toward it. Several factors have contributed […]

Choi Kang*
comfort women , Regional commons , Regionalism , unification
February 11,2016 National Commentaries

A Japanese Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   In the mid-1990s, when Japan and the United States redefined their alliance and revised the “Guidelines for Defense Cooperation between the United States and Japan” to match the new set of international security challenges that arose after the end of the Cold War, trilateral security relations among the United States, […]

Yamaguchi Noboru*
Regionalism , Track 2 talks , US deterrence
February 11,2016 National Commentaries

A US Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   When President Barack Obama announced his much-touted “rebalance” to Asia in a speech in Australia in November 2011, his administration believed that its new stance toward the Asia-Pacific policy would be his foreign policy legacy. Having ended, so they hoped, America’s military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, their emphasis on […]

Michael Auslin
Democracy , Hub-and-Spokes , National security , Regionalism
December 18,2015 National Commentaries

The Malaysian POV: The Elephant in the Room – Is the Emerging Third Pillar Reshaping Asian Architecture and Regional Responses?

"The November Summits in Retrospect"   There was an elephant in the room at the recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila as well as at the East Asia Summit (EAS) and other ASEAN-based meetings in Kuala Lumpur last month: the quiet, potential sway of China-centered initiatives and arrangements on the future of […]

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
"Belt and Road" Initiative , China hub , Common Destiny , Regionalism