Long thought of as a ‘distant neighbor’ by Asian nations, Russia under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin is engaged in an effort to turn the country Eastward to engage Asia’s fast-growing economies. The move presents great opportunities to the region, but could also reshape the geopolitics of Asia.
Does Moscow have a realistic strategy for taking advantage of its Asian neighbors’ economic dynamism by expanding bilateral political relations and becoming part of the development of multilateral co-operation and integration in East Asia?
Russia's call for a multipolar world, where power doesn't reside with a single hegemon such as the US, is a veiled bid to exert Russian influence in Asia and the world at a time when Russia's great power status is questionable, at best.
Nodari Simonia and Victor Sumsky delve into the complex politics and economics of Putin’s bold strategy to turn Russia toward the East.
As Vladimir Putin begins his third term as president of Russia, the country's economy, and even its political system, remains as dependent as ever on the export of natural resources.
Until fairly recently, Russia's defense-industrial complex was targeting primarily external markets. Currently, the priority is shifting towards rearmament and the modernization of Russia’s own Armed Forces.
The Korean peninsula is playing a significant role in Russia’s ability to realize its ambitious goal of becoming a truly Euro-Pacific power.
There are numerous reasons for Japan and Russia to build a closer strategic partnership in light of issues ranging from the rise of China to energy, transnational crime and North Korea's nuclear program.
Due to the decline of industrial activity after the Soviet Union collapsed, the Northeast Asia region has been spared significant environmental damage, but the future is far from assured.
For more than two decades now, South Koreans have watched as negotiations repeatedly failed to end North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Redeploying US tactical nukes would change the strategic dynamics entirely and at last enable a breakthrough.
Frustration at North Korea fuelled a recent attempt by US lawmakers to secure support to redeploy US nukes in South Korea. But the plan is out of touch with political and military realities, and it runs the grave risk of making the situation worse.
In a speech delivered recently in Seoul, former US National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley outlined how the remarkable economic rise of Asia has reshaped the global political order and how this has posed trenchant questions.
What is needed is a new approach that frees “Asian studies” from the constraints that marginalize the topic from mainstream academic discourse and repositions it as part of a new global social science.
Many see China's authoritarian government as an asset in its rise up the economic ladder, but India's more open and transparent democracy gives it the edge when it comes to becoming a global power.
For practical reasons, India and China should find ways to work together in building a new and harmonious “Asian Century.”
As Japan contemplates the future of nuclear energy in the country, the pro-nuclear government and the nuclear industry risk submitting the country to yet a fourth disaster.
With relations between Mainland China and Taiwan warming quickly in recent years, and China asserting greater control over Hong Kong-Taiwan relations, Hong Kong's bridging role may no longer be as important.
As they watched the so-called Arab Spring sweeping through the Middle East last year, toppling governments in autocratic states once seen as immune from popular discontent, leaders in Asian countries with one-party political systems naturally asked, could
Former BBC correspondent Angus Roxburgh's The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia dissects Putin's remarkable emergence and his administration's inner workings. Reviewed by Emily Parker.
ASEAN-Russia: Foundations and Future Prospects is the third in a series of volumes to emerge from the ASEAN-Russia Conference. Reviewed by Mihoko Kato
Short Reviews of Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan by Ahmed Rashid; No One's World: The West, The Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn by Charles A. Kupchan, etc.