County Report: Japan (March 2024)

Through the winter of 2024, as Kishida Fumio suffered low ratings amid an LDP funding scandal, foreign affairs were a secondary concern. End-of-year and start-of-year meetings kept relations […]

Introduction

Faced with Donald Trump’s unprecedented disruptions to US foreign policy and Kim Jong-un’s roller-coaster ride (from repeated provocations in 2017 to a diplomatic offensive in 2018), Xi Jinping […]

China’s Strategic Thinking toward the US Role in the Indo-Pacific, 2017-2020

No administration has been more consequential or definitive than the Trump administration in altering the course of US-China relations since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United […]

Repulsing Challenges to Sinocentrism in Northeast Asia, 2017-2020

Repeatedly, over the period 2017 to 2020, China’s leaders felt challenged over their agenda for Northeast Asia, with plans for other arenas also disrupted. The THAAD deployment, the […]

Country Report: Russia (January 2024)

Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or One Belt One Road (OBOR) in Russian eyes) summit in Beijing, Xi Jinping’s summit with Joe Biden […]

Country Report: Japan (January 2024)

In the late autumn of 2023, there was no dramatic development in Japanese foreign policy. Prime Minister Kishida’s trip to the San Francisco APEC summit reinforced existing thinking […]

Country Report: South Korea (December 2023)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the importance of fostering military ties and collaborative security efforts during his November 8-9 visit to South Korea, particularly in the […]

ASEAN

For Southeast Asia, the halcyon days of the Obama “pivot,” which saw the president initiate the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, accede to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and […]

The Russian Pivot to Asia

Vladimir Putin’s “turn to the East” (povorot na Vostok) greatly intensified in 2014. Of the various pivots to Asia it is one of the most controversial, but, at […]

The China Dream – 4

This monthly post tracks developments around the “China Dream” since September 17, 2013 and engages Manoranjan Mohanty whose view was summarized in the rejoinder to my previous post. […]