Stepping Up to the Challenge and Embracing Pragmatism: Two Visions of Foreign Policy in the South Korean Presidential Election of 2022

The South Korean presidential election is only days away and, unlike past elections, the outcome is difficult to predict. There is, however, one thing that we can be […]

Myanmar’s Democratic Backsliding in the Struggle for National Identity and Independence

When Myanmar’s ruling military junta transitioned to a nominally civilian government in 2011, observers around the world asked whether one of Asia’s most repressive regimes was finally breaking […]

Negative Scenario for Modi’s India “Acts East”

In the past eighteen months, the prime minister of India has travelled abroad thirty times roughly translating into two overseas visits a month. In the next two months […]

Country Report: Russia (November 2015)

Iurii Belobrov in the November Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn’ argued that Russia and China each on its own cannot match the US strategy to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific […]

China’s Anti-Fascist War Narrative: Seventy Years On and the War with Japan is Not Over Yet

In China, the war that ended with Japan’s surrender 70 years ago is known as the World Anti-Fascist War. Chinese communities in Melbourne and Sydney have been trying […]

Japan and the TPP Conclusion: Regional Order, Negotiations, and Domestic Adjustment

It took five and half years for 12 member states to reach general agreement over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which in encompassing 40 percent of the global economy […]

Myanmar’s Liberalization and North Korea: Transforming “Outposts of Tyranny”? Lessons and Cautions

In Western popular parlance, North Korea and Myanmar have been inextricably linked through designate Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s memorable phrase, “outposts of tyranny.” The totalitarian/authoritarian nature of […]

A Japanese Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   For understandable reasons, the Japanese paid rapt attention to the July 2014 Seoul summit between China and South Korea. Perhaps, the most compelling […]

Civilizational Divides and Regional Confrontations – 2

Unlike previous Topics of the Month, this one will have multiple authors as well as rejoinders. The idea for it arose from Francois Godement’s observations that the European […]

Japanese Publications on Japan-Russia Relations

Kaigai jijo, special Issue on turbulence in the sphere of the old Soviet Union, June 2014 Togo Kazuhiko, Hoppo ryodo kosho hiroku: ushinawareta gotabi no kikai [The Inside […]