Read this SCMP report by Raissa Robles on the Philippines’ approach to China on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea dispute – Has President Aquino been too aggressive?
Manila’s Approach – Overreaching?
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Prospects for Keeping the Peace in Southeast Asia
Read this report on the recent ASEAN summit by Jim Della-Giacoma of the International Crisis Group. “To its critics, ASEAN’s commitments to the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy, rule of law, and good governance are nothing but a dream,” Della-Giacoma writes. “But for [outgoing ASEAN Secretary-General] Surin [Pitsuwan of Thailand] and [Indonesian Foreign Minister] Marty [Natalegawa], it is more a case of from little things big things grow. To ignore the flawed institutions, they say, is to guarantee they will never be all that they can be. The association needs to be challenged, pushed, and cajoled from inside and out. To these two boosters, the imperfect organisation they have served or nurtured needs to be given a chance – again and again. Their message is that the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights and the ASEAN Institute of Peace and Reconciliation are the last pieces of a complicated regional peace and security puzzle. It is all we’ve got and it is all we’re getting. Let’s now try to make it work.”
Key Asian Indicators
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank in Washington, DC, has released this booklet of key Asian indicators, which include some rather nifty graphics. It may be useful to you in your research and in your work beyond this course.
Rocket Ruckus
North Korea’s successful launch of a rocket, said to be essentially a step towards an intercontinental ballistic missile, has riled the US and raised concerns around the region – on the eve of elections in South Korea. Read this Wall Street Journal essay by former US defense official Jack David. What are the implications of this latest move by the unpredictable DPRK?
It’s Just Business – or is it National Security?
Here’s an interesting essay by the Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer on the Huawei controversy, which was posted on his Reuters blog page in October.
Looking to Japan
Philippine officials are saying that they are looking to Japan as a counterbalance to a more assertive China, especially as territorial disputes with Beijing roil the South China Sea. Read this Reuters report. Is a balance-of-power arrangement emerging in East Asia? Could a “mini Cold War” emerge, possibly leading to conflict and tensions within ASEAN?
The Outlook for Cross-Strait Relations
Some interesting recent articles on cross-strait relations:
Douglas Paal, who is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was the unofficial representative of the US to Taiwan from 2002 to 2006. This commentary was published in June.
Liu Fu-kuo is research fellow and chairman of the Division of American and European Studies at the Institute of International Relations of National Chengchi University in Taiwan. This commentary was published the Brookings Institution in July 2011.
Alan Romberg is director of the East Asia Program at The Henry L. Stimson Center. This paper was published by the China Leadership Monitor of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University in October.
A Business Pivot to Asia
In class this Thursday, we will have as a guest Curtis Chin, the former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank in Manila, who is currently a senior fellow at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. In this Wall Street Journal essay, Chin argues that. while much has been made about the Obama administration’s strategic pivot to Asia, “missing from this shift is a ‘business pivot’—a more concerted effort to increase trade and investment between America and its allies in the region.” Such a move “would be good strategy, and good economics too,” Chin writes. He concludes:
A central benefit of peace and stability in Southeast Asia—which is a goal of the U.S. administration’s strategic pivot—would be to open the way for greater commercial opportunities on both sides of the Pacific. It’s time for Washington to understand that trade and economic ties can be part of the means to a strategic solution in the region, and not just the ends.
How to Write Clearly
For those seeking some tips on how to improve your writing, you may be interested in this pamphlet issued by the European Commission.
POLI6007 - International Relations in the Asia-Pacific 