Written by Ramon Pacheco Pardo
Along with China and India, South Korea is one of the top three Asian manufacturers of vaccines. Thus, South Korean pharmaceutical firms are going to become critical to the rollout of vaccines across the Indo-Pacific region. The KORUS Global Vaccine Partnership (agreed to by Seoul and Washington) is a clear step in this direction.
Read MoreWritten by Mariana Vieira
Because the ‘China threat’ debate is premised upon the American understanding of 1945 as year-zero of its own global hegemony, proponents struggle to grapple with the potential for different, past and future, conceptions of a global order.
Read MoreWritten by Filip Sebok
It seems that Beijing is willing to sacrifice strategic gains in some areas, including the successful ratification of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investments (CAI), in favour of the aggressive defence of its increasingly repressive domestic policies in Xinjiang and elsewhere.
Read MoreWritten by Felix Kuhn
Pragmatism served Abe well, making it possible to steady Japan’s relationship with China while building up a coalition of partners in the region. Suga has so far shown no inclination to depart from Abe’s footsteps. But it is not yet clear whether Abe’s policy is sustainable over the long term.
Read MoreWritten by Uday Bakhshi
It has also heavily focused on its cyber capabilities, and there are allegations it is propping up state-sanctioned financial crime syndicates to conduct heists. North Korea is not as isolated as the mainstream news narrative leads one to believe, and it will focus on these relations amid broader diplomatic considerations.
Read MoreWritten by Gabriela Bernal
No matter how badly Washington wants complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation (CVID), the likelihood of Pyongyang agreeing to this while receiving no concessions in return is close to zero. Biden and his advisors must face reality and stop approaching the North Koreans with the same rhetoric and tactics that have failed time and again.
Read MoreWritten by Natasha Kuhrt
Nor has Russia been able to implement many of its ambitious plans for its ailing far eastern region, which was once central to the Asian pivot. By continuing with its Sinocentric approach, Moscow ensures the continuing overdependence on China, and so the impossibility of modernisation and diversification of the economy.
Read MoreWritten by Zoe Jordan
The CCP is well-versed in utilising its media apparatus to communicate strategic narratives, and given the timing of disengagement, the event was likely seen as an opportune moment to pursue domestic political objectives through a related media campaign.
Read MoreWritten by Wen Lii
While countries in East Asia, such as China, Japan or South Korea, may not hold particular strengths in fostering a multi-ethnic environment, Taiwan could look towards Europe or Southeast Asia to devise feasible approaches towards encouraging regional identities.
Read MoreWritten by Sam Baron
While some argue that universal jurisdiction is a flawed method of accountability, it remains an indisputably concrete tool to apply pressure on the Kim regime and bring further attention to the heinous crimes committed against the North Korean people.
Read MoreWritten by Mahima Duggal
Foreign aid diplomacy has shaped China’s international economic profile, transforming its image from a developing economy to an economic powerhouse at the centre of global supply chains, thus making it a critical financier of development projects in the global south.
Read MoreWritten by Ingrid Rafaele Rodrigues Leiria
Seoul should use its high technology capabilities (in green and digital initiatives) to promote worldwide sustainable development, therefore, the Korean New Deal and the adaptation of eco-diplomacy must become an essential pillar of South Korea’s future foreign policy.
Read MoreWritten by Michael Trinkwalder
However, if the EU truly wishes to make its Eastern members commit to a common strategy, its Western members will also have to give up on their jealously guarded ‘special relationships’ with China. A strategy devised between Paris and Berlin alone might be more ambitious, but it would do little good if it left half of the Union out in the cold.
Read MoreWritten by Aadil Brar
Amid a destabilising security environment, China has limited opportunities to provide a different model for the region and the growing involvement of European powers in the Indo-Pacific will only further complicate these plans. To date, the United Kingdom has said that they will hold naval drills with Japan; France has committed to play a growing role in the Indo-Pacific and expanded cooperation with India, and Germany has formally adopted an Indo-Pacific strategy.
Read MoreWritten by Michael Brodka
The repression has escalated since 2017 and includes the forced labour and ‘re-education’ of 11 million Uyghurs residing in Xinjiang. However, more disturbing are the reports of the mass sterilisation of Uyghur women that, along with corresponding birth statistics, show that China is undertaking demographic repression of the Uyghur minority.
Read MoreWritten by Gerald C Brown
Outside of the South China Sea, Taiwan’s occupation would put China right at the doorstep of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, the string of small islands stretching from Taiwan to the Japanese mainland, including US military bases in Okinawa. Many of the islands would become far closer to China than Japan and would be well in range of Chinese Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
Read MoreWritten by Wen Lii
Kinmen and Matsu continue to face challenges from across the Strait — whether in the form of sand dredgers or false narratives — their location on the border continues to offer us a glimpse of China’s increasingly diverse toolbox of exerting influence, while also spurring Taiwan and the rest of the democratic world to devise more creative methods of coping with them.
Read MoreWritten by Gabriela Bernal
Given that Kim Jong Un has kept quiet and away from the spotlight for most of 2020, the statements made during the Congress call for considerable analysis by the incoming US administration. Biden and his team must formulate a clear strategy to deal with North Korea from the very beginning, lest they wait too long and miss the opportunity for diplomacy altogether.
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