::Global Asia::

Chung-in Moon and David Plott

We devote a large proportion of this edition of Global Asia to the complex and wide-ranging security issues that will be front and center at the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit that takes place March 26-27. The hope is, as South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Sung-Hwan Kim writes in our pages, that this summit will build on the achievements of the first Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, in 2010. In a sign of the seriousness with which the international community is taking this endeavor to improve nuclear security and ultimately create “a world free of nuclear weapons,” 58 world leaders will attend the summit in Seoul.

The challenges are enormous, and so too are the risks if those challenges are not met. Ensuring nuclear security, which hinges so much on keeping fissile and radiological material out of the hands of the wrong ...

A Bumpy but Better Road Lies Ahead
By Philip Bowring

No one can doubt that Burma has moved forward over the past 18 months, and however skeptical one may reasonably be about the motives and goals of those behind the changes, there is still momentum towards reform.

The Certainty of Uncertainty
By Aung Zaw

Despite moves toward reform, there are many vested interests in Burma that could derail the process — the army, the government bureaucracy, moneyed cronies, and so on. The one thing that is certain is that things remain uncertain.

Indian Foreign Policy in the Wake of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka
By Vikas Kumar

At the March session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), India voted in favor of a resolution criticizing the Sri Lankan government’s handling of post-insurgency rehabilitation of minorities. The vote has, however, divided India. On the one hand, many think that India’s vote was the minimum expected of a democratic country and argue that India has not lost much because Colombo was anyway brazenly ignoring India’s quiet diplomacy over the matter. On the other hand, a vocal group feels that in casting the vote, India’s central government committed a blunder under pressure from its Tamil coalition partners and the United States. According to this latter group, India’s losses are threefold. First, China will be able to consolidate its influence in Sri Lanka, while India and the West will be further marginalized. Second, India has estranged itself from neighboring countries that supported Sri Lanka. Third, the Indian government has set a bad precedent by allowing provincial politics to affect foreign policy.

NAPSNet Weekly:

Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly

Policy Forum:

The DPRK: An Isolated Nuclear Armed Pariah State or Potential Co-Operative Economic ‘Tiger’

Special Report:

China and a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone in Northeast Asia

Moving forward on regional integration in trade in services
By Michael Cornish

University of Adelaide Trade liberalisation — whether of goods or services — faces the classic and recurrent political-economy problem attached to serious reform. The los...

On page 87 of the print edition of the Spring 2012 issue of Global Asia, we incorrectly referred to Chung-in Moon attending a conference in New York "as an advisor to the Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security." We regret the error.

		The risks posed by nuclear materials present the world with a unique set of security challenges, whether they involve attempted acts of terrorism or the consequences of natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant. The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit on March 26-27 brings together 58 world leaders to discuss the best ways forward.

Asian Governance in a Hyperconnected World
By Chiemi Hayashi & David Gleicher

The Geneva-based World Economic Forum conducts an annual survey of risk perceptions over the coming decade with the aim of stimulating discussion on possible ways of mitigating them. Chiemi Hayashi and David Gleicher discuss the Forum’s Global ..

A Modest Leap Forward: Why the US-North Korea ‘Leap Day Deal’ Has Potential
By John Delury & Chung-in Moon

The tangled knot that is the North Korean nuclear issue is closer to some kind of resolution due to the surprise deal announced by Pyongyang and Washington on February 29. Or is it? ..

Opportunities and Obstacles: Revelations From a Dialogue With North Korea
By Chung-in Moon

In the absence of normalized relations between the US and North Korea, so-called “Track Two” dialogue plays a key role in the relationship. From March 7 to 9, North Korea’s chief nuclear envoy, Vice Foreign ..

Trade Winds: Big Power Politics and Asia-Pacific Economic Integration
By Takashi Terada

Recent years have seen a proliferation of activity promoting free trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region. The recent push by the US to give greater weight to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, however, could help to reshape the course of trade..

21st Century Asian Cities: Unique Transformation, Unprecedented Challenges
By Bharat Dahiya

The sustained economic growth of Asian economies in recent decades has brought into focus the important role played by cities. The first-ever United Nations report on The State of Asian Cities 2010/11¹ ..

Time to Tame American Military Interventionism
By S.R. Joey Long & Shiping Tang

As a result of massive military power and geographical advantages that keep the country isolated from the horrors of war on its soil, American citizens have tended to view foreign military interventions as relatively painless and popular.

Why Pick a Fight With China?
By Walter C. Clemens, Jr

US policymakers note that China in March announced plans to raise its defense budget by 11.2 percent, while Chinese officials maintain that defense spending has declined as a share of GDP in the last three years. People’s Daily says Washington’s ‘return to Asia’ strategy is ‘causing disturbance in..

Sizing Up Taiwan’s Election
By Yun-han Chu

The fierce presidential election in January was watched closely by much of the world for signs whether Taiwanese voters would endorse the island’s policy of closer economic integration with mainland China. Yun-han Chu examines the implications of President Ma Ying-jeou’s re-election.

LONG REVIEWS
		Seeking Harmony in the Middle Way Reviewed by Gibung Kwon

		Everywhere we turn, we see bewilderment over the meaning of universal rights, human dignity and progress. As people witness human suffering caused by natural and man-made calamities, how do we reconcile the values of humanity with the fact that the marginal and the poor still suffer from discrimination and oppression?



SHORT REVIEWS
		Nuclear Safety Is Everyone’s Business Reviewed by Taehwan Kim

		The ominous alarm rung by the Fukushima nuclear accident, however disastrous, is unlikely to reverse the longer-term dramatic increase in global demand for civilian nuclear power. Skyrocketing global electricity demand and increased concerns over energy security and greenhouse gas emissions, among other factors, are enough to validate this projection.

		In Defense of Dictatorship Reviewed by John Delury

		Although couched in the sometimes clinical language of political science, Tuong Vu’s basic argument in Paths to Development in Asia, is brutal: Asian leaders who destroyed internal opposition from rival elites and the public should get credit for building states with the capacity for rapid economic development.