STRATEGIC SPOTLIGHT

Asia Watch

Yuriko Koike

Is China Asia’s new hegemon, or is a balance of power emerging among China, India, Japan, and the United States? Is Japan breaking away from American tutelage? Will the rise of the consumer transform Asia’s export-led economies? Can Asia’s giants cope with climate change without choking off growth? Is a cooperative regional infrastructure such as exists in Europe possible?

RECENT COMMENTARIES

FEATURED COMMENTARIES

China’s Soft-Power Offensive in Taiwan

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2012-01-30

China has learned trade and other enticements, rather than threats and bullying, are more effective in swaying voters during Taiwanese elections. But will China take the next step and learn that democracy Taiwan-style might also work in the mainland?... read

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North Korea’s Samurai Rules

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-12-26

Although Kim Jong-il received his reign from his own father, North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, history suggests that a clean transfer from father to son is the exception rather than the rule. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine North Korea's aging, battle-hardened generals, kowtowing to the callow and inexperienced Kim Jong-un.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 12153

A Democratic Burma?

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-11-30

TOKYO – Historic transformations often happen when least expected. Mikhail Gorbachev’s liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union emerged at one of the Cold War’s darkest hours, with US President Ronald Reagan pushing for strategic missile defense and the two sides fighting proxy wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Deng Xiaoping’s economic opening followed China’s bloody – and failed – invasion of Vietnam in 1978. And South Africa’s last apartheid leader, F. W. de Klerk, was initially perceived as just another apologist for the system – hardly the man to free Nelson Mandela and oversee the end of white minority rule.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 1 Read: 11072

Obama and Asia’s Two Futures

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-10-31

Despite the relentless shift of global economic might to Asia, and China’s rise as a great power, America’s focus over the past decade has been elsewhere. In November, Barack Obama can begin to correct that when he hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in his native state of Hawaii.... read

Comments: 10 Recommended: 1 Read: 34833

China’s African Mischief

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-09-28

As Libya’s National Transitional Council attempts to establish a functioning government for a newly liberated country, the truth about what went on under Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime is starting to come to light. Some of the dirtiest secrets, it turns out, involved China.... read

Comments: 4 Recommended: 1 Read: 14769

The Last Days of Qaddafi

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-08-22

At long last, the endgame in the Libyan conflict appears to be at hand. But, while Muammar el-Qaddafi ousted King Idris 42 years ago without bloodshed, he now seems intent on a kind of desert Götterdämmerung.... read

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Unsafe at Any Speed?

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-07-28

The intellectual-property dispute between Japan and China over the technology used in China’s new bullet trains was heated before the recent collision of two Chinese trains that killed 38 people and injured more than 200. In the wake of the crash, the dispute has become scalding.... read

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Asia After the Afghan War

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-06-20

July will mark two milestones in America’s relations with Asia: the first US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, and the 40th anniversary of Henry Kissinger’s secret mission to Beijing. Will the Obama administration’s apparent lack of any explicit Asia strategy mean a general US retreat from Asia?... read

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Squaring Asia’s Nuclear Triangle

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2011-05-30

At their recent trilateral summit, Japan, China, and South Korea agreed to cooperate more closely on managing nuclear power in the region. But regional cooperation on nuclear safety cannot succeed unless Taiwan is invited to join the effort.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 20764

The Sun Will Rise Again	Yuriko Koike
Japan’s economy, having endured two decades of sluggishness, has been falling behind globally even faster since the financial crisis that erupted in 2008. How, then, will the massive shock caused by the earthquake and tsunami affect the country’s economic prospects?... read

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Hillary’s Kissinger Moment

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-08-13

TOKYO – Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Asia may one day be seen as the most significant visit to the region by a United States diplomat since Henry Kissinger’s secret mission to Beijing in July 1971. Kissinger’s mission triggered a diplomatic revolution. Renewal of US-Chinese relations shifted the global balance of power at the Cold War’s height, and prepared the way for China to open its economy – the decision that, more than any other, has defined today’s world. What Clinton did and said during her Asian tour will mark either the end of the era that Kissinger initiated four decades ago, or the start of a distinct new phase in that epoch.... read

Comments: 2 Recommended: 1 Read: 27644

The Dear Leader Nuclear Weapons Company

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-04-13

Neither the recently signed US-Russia treaty to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons, nor upcoming global nuclear arms talks, will have much impact on today’s most perilous threat: the nuclear honeymoon between an Iran determined to acquire nuclear weapons and a North Korea willing to sell Iran much of that capacity for hard currency.... read

Comments: 4 Recommended: 2 Read: 31414

How to Undermine an Alliance

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-01-13

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-United States Security Treaty. But, instead of celebrating an agreement that has helped stabilize East Asia for a half-century, the treaty is now at serious risk, as much from Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's indecision as from his government's deep strains of anti-Americanism.... read

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How to Undermine an Alliance

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-01-13

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The Suzuki Alliance

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-02-12

The strategic interests of India and Japan are almost perfectly aligned, and each shares a desire to stabilize and preserve Asia’s balance of power. So it is no surprise that Japan is pushing to develop closer economic and strategic ties – an effort pioneered by key Japanese companies, particularly Suzuki. ... read

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The Struggle for Mastery of the Pacific

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-05-12

With the Shanghai Expo now underway, the world watches and wonders whether China will follow Japan’s path and emerge as a fully modern yet peacefully inclined country. There is growing reason to doubt that it will. ... read

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Hillary’s Kissinger Moment

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-08-13

Comments: 2 Recommended: 1 Read: 27644

Russia’s Lost Opportunity with Japan

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-07-19

The recent exchange of spies between Russia and the US appears to demonstrate that the “reset” in bilateral relations has worked. But Russia failure to “reset” its relations with Japan is not only a lost opportunity, given Russia’s need to modernize its economy, but also a strategic error in view of Russia’s increasing worries about China.... read

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Japan’s Financial Truant

Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch

2010-03-12

Last year, Japanese voters chose the Democratic Party of Japan in order to change the country. Instead, they have mostly seen the same old political scandals - and, worse, the same inaction on restoring the country's fiscal and economic health.... read

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Squaring Asia’s Nuclear Triangle	Yuriko Koike
At their recent trilateral summit, Japan, China, and South Korea agreed to cooperate more closely on managing nuclear power in the region. But regional cooperation on nuclear safety cannot succeed unless Taiwan is invited to join the effort.... read
China’s Choice in North Korea	Yuriko Koike
If the most dangerous moment for any dictatorship is when it starts to reform, North Korea looks ready to turn that truism on its head. Its recent shelling of South Korea suggests that the failing Kim dynasty might set East Asia alight rather than undertake any serious reform.... read

AUTHOR INFO

Yuriko Koike

Yuriko Koike is Japan’s former Minister of Defense and National Security Adviser.

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