Asia has prospered because Pax Americana, which has held since the end of World War II, provided a favorable strategic context. But now, the troubled U.S.-Chinese relationship raises profound questions about Asia’s future and the shape of the emerging international order.
Coronavirus infections are spiking in Japan and creating hot spots in India’s congested cities just as the U.S. and some of the hardest-hit European countries are considering when to start easing restrictions that have helped curb their outbreaks of the disease.
Japanese media featured smiling shots of Shinzo Abe, who has just broken all records to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, at 2,887 days and still going strong, striding atop Japan’s political scene like a real-life colossus. For all the celebrations of Abe’s record-breaking past, the real questions are for the future: what is Abe doing with his power and how is he preparing an ailing Japan for the challenges of an uncertain future.
Primorsky Krai is the eastern most point of East Europe, so east at that point that it stops looking like Europe and starts looking like Asia. So far east, that one tour guide at the state museum of Primorsky Krai, described Vladivostok as the edge of the world, and if the flat earth theory held true, then we’d fall off if we went any further east.
South Korea’s decision to end an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, part of a widening rift between the two U.S. allies, has the Pentagon on edge — and not just because it arrives amid stalled efforts to persuade North Korea to denuclearize. “China is the biggest winner here,” said Rob Spalding, a former senior official on President Trump’s National Security Council.
World leaders who gather in Osaka, Japan, for the G20 summit this week will begin a conversation on worldwide data governance—and though they are deeply divided on the question of who should control data, some nations could seek to devise a system that excludes China.
As the Indo-Pacific concept becomes a more central part of India’s foreign policy, here are five ideas for this Indo-Pacific desk to consider, all of which aim to advance the shared vision of a “free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific” promoted by India, the United States, Japan, and others.
Japan’s Emperor Akihito, who is abdicating after three decades on the Chrysanthemum Throne, has been much more of a global leader than a national one. That sets him apart from his father – and from many of the world’s current leaders.
Obama talked of pivoting to Asia. Donald Trump made Asia pivot to America. In the last two years, Trump has done much to increase U.S. influence in the Indo-Pacific region. But much more needs doing. A fast start is well and good, the Indo-Pacific contest is a marathon, not a sprint.
For the past seven years, Japan has competed against the Chinese initiative, not only by reforming its lending practices and increasing funding for development assistance, but also by articulating a vision for what Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called “quality” infrastructure investment and seeking international partners to advance these principles.
