Harvard's Alastair Iain Johnston has a must-read article in the Spring issue of International Security in which he dissects the spread of a meme of China's "new assertiveness" spread among policy analysts, the media, and scholars in the US in 2010. (Available for free as a pdf, at least for the time being.)As Paul Pillar notes, …
Tag: Rise of China
A new alliance in the making
Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya has arrived in Hawaii for a Tuesday morning meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Following weeks of bilateral acrimony, the two will discuss negotiations to strengthen bilateral cooperation on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the US-Japan mutual security treaty, signed fifty years ago this month.For the moment …
A reply to Randy Waterhouse on balancing
Randy Waterhouse graciously addressed some points I raised in response to his discussion of Japanese balancing behavior, and I would like to respond in turn.Although before I do, I must add that I like the Stephensonian moniker.1 and 2) I think what we're dealing with here is the difference between balancing as a description of …
Is Japan balancing?
"Randy Waterhouse," the nom de blog of a contributor to the political science group blog Duck of Minerva, looks to Japan in a discussion of when and why states balance against other states.As I wrote in April, the lack of Japanese balancing behavior is the great puzzle in Japanese security policy since the end of …
The emergence of Middle Power Asia
Over the past week, we have seen more signs of the shape that international relations in East Asia will take over the coming decades.I've written before about the role that middle powers — most notably Japan, Australia, South Korea, ASEAN acting as a bloc, and to a lesser extent India — will play in the …
A future for values diplomacy?
Daniel Twining, currently a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and formerly an Asia policy staffer at the State Department's policy planning staff and an adviser to John McCain, offers his recommendations to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Shadow Government, a new blog at Foreign Policy featuring the writing of conservative and Republican …
What will be the impact of the Chinese ASBM on the US-Japan alliance?
Reports are emerging that in the process of enhancing its short- and medium-range ballistic missile forces, China is also developing the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile, similar to the DF-21, a ballistic missile with a range of 1800 kilometers. (Whether the new version will have a similar range remains to be seen — it may …
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Asia’s future is in the hands of its middle powers
Hugh White, a professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, has been waging a determined fight against Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Asian regional vision in a series of articles and blog posts.The crux of his critique can be found in the title of a speech he gave in Tokyo earlier this month: …
Continue reading Asia’s future is in the hands of its middle powers
Strange days
Perhaps showing just how serious China is about not mentioning the war and acknowledging Japan's "consistent pursuit of the path of a peaceful country," not to mention illustrating just how dire the situation in Szechuan is, the Chinese government has reportedly asked the Japanese government to dispatch planes to China in order to deliver tents, …
Mr. Hu’s relentlessly upbeat visit
Chinese President Hu Jintao will leave Japan Saturday after a five-day visit, a visit that the Chinese Communist Party's external relations bureau has described as a "great success."(Photo from the Office of the Prime Minister)It is hard to dispute that, as far as symbolism goes, the visit was indeed a success. Mr. Hu and Prime …
Tobias S. Harris 