Author : East Asia Forum

In a recent East Asia Forum article, Sam Bateman criticised a decision by the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to develop military plans for more assertive freedom of...

Forecasts of China’s future run the gamut. I do not endorse either extreme. There is no significant chance that in the foreseeable future the Communist government will follow the...

The landmark Australia–China Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), signed sealed and delivered, completes a trifecta of trade deals since last year with Australia’s three Northeast Asian neighbours — China, Japan,...

Despite its calls for ‘more Jakarta and less Geneva’, the Abbott government appears to have fallen into a passive approach to multilateral diplomacy. Moreover, as tensions in the South...

In our rapidly changing world, new global contradictions are emerging rapidly. Today, the biggest global contradiction is this: the demand for global leadership has never been greater but the...

A visionary new leader, Narendra Modi, has recently come to power in India. He seeks to realise India’s huge growth potential and make it a major global player. This...

Indonesia’s experience within ASEAN has been that leadership in a world of sovereign states must be earned and nurtured, not imposed at will. Indonesia’s experience within ASEAN has been...

Japanese policymakers received a shock when they heard in late March that 57 countries, including some of the United States’ closest allies, had applied to join the China-led Asian...

For a quarter of a century, India has looked east, and for a year ‘acted east’. The latter policy is proving to be more than just rhetoric. Bangladesh, previously...

The South China Sea has become a flashpoint for conflict between China and some of its ASEAN neighbours, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam. China’s recent land reclamation around the...