Asia and Pacific

So Japan has conducted its first successful ballistic missile defence test, shooting down a target missile with an interceptor fired from one of its destroyers. Development of Japan's missile defence system is leading to unprecedented levels of integration with the US military, bringing the

FROM: Hugh White, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute and Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University TO: Hon. Kevin Rudd,  Prime Minister At your campaign launch you listed the rise of China and India among the biggest challenges Australia faces over

Guest blogger: Alistair Thornton is a Beijing-based economic analyst. Alistair has a Masters in International Relations at the University of Sydney. His interests lie in public health, terrorism and the role of religion in public life.  Little noticed late last week was news that a 52-year old

 Reader Peter McCawley responds to my post on sovereign wealth funds in Australia: In his article about sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), Stephen Grenville suggests that it is important for Australian policy-makers and commentators to participate in the growing international debate

A post-script to Malcolm Cook’s Incoming Government Brief on East Asian regionalism: for Australia, there are some important issues in the way the international economic architecture is evolving. In the region, it is clearly in our interests that more of the action goes to the East Asia Summit (

This Solomon Star report suggests the Australian-led intervention to Solomon Islands (aka RAMSI) still has a lot of work to do before it can leave the country. After a recent soccer match, rioters overwhelmed local Solomon Islands police, forcing them to retreat to their Chinatown base, where they

Coming back from a two-week trip to China and Japan to discuss East Asian regionalism has left me with two strong, counterveiling feelings. On the one hand, the formal process of inter-state regionalism in East Asia is in trouble because of Japan’s unresolved relations with South Korea and China

Peter Hitchens is not my cup of tea as a political commentator, but this essay on North Korea in The American Conservative makes him a pretty good travel guide. And he makes an important point at the end of the piece, reminding us that although we may justifiably fear North Korea's nuclear

Consistency may be the hobgoblin of small minds, but it certainly doesn’t constrain great ones. Larry Summers is former US Treasury Secretary, former Harvard President, one of the smartest economists of his generation, and was a member of Time Magazine’s 'committee to save the world'

In a recent CFR analysis on Changing the Aussie Guard, Jayshree Bajoria writes: ...within its Asia-Pacific neighborhood, a Rudd Government might bring a change in tone. This could include a move away from the muscular diplomacy that led to an Australia-India defense agreement last

In what could well be his swansong abroad as Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer is sacrificing some of his fast-diminishing electioneering time to represent Prime Minister John Howard at the East Asia Summit (EAS), being held today in Singapore.  This is welcome news. Putting

Mixed signals from this AsiaSource interview with former GAM separatist and now governor of Aceh, Irwandi Yusuf. On the one hand, his focus on economic development, foreign investment and eradication of corruption is encouraging. But the Governor clearly has a high degree of mistrust of the

After Xi’an, I arrived in Kunming to attend to the 16th Board meeting of the Global Fund, and the first ever Global Fund board meeting to be held in China. The meeting took place only after a serious negotiation between the Fund and the Chinese government over travel restrictions the

Last week the Lowy Institute hosted Dr Meryl Williams, who gave a presentation on her Lowy Institute Paper, 'Enmeshed: Australia and South East Asia's fisheries'. We took the opportunity to record this short interview

The Financial Times' Gideon Rachman is right: it's time to stop talking about China's rise as a prospect and face the fact that it has already arrived. Maybe this will enter popular consciousness when Beijing hosts the Olympics

In response to my Solomons post, a reader writes: One lesson from past development experience should surely be that sustainable solutions neither come unilaterally from Canberra (or the Lowy Institute for that matter) nor expeditiously. Hence, whilst these debates are important, and

Weekend political protests in Malaysia - the biggest in about a decade - are more than just the latest installment in the ongoing arm-wrestle between the government and opposition groups. The Asia Sentinel provides useful context here on the many players involved. The monarchy, the courts,

Next Friday, The Interpreter will cover the federal election debate between Defence Minister Brendon Nelson and the Labor Party Defence spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon.  They're sure to discuss Australia's future fighter aircraft requirements, particularly since the ABC's marquee

Back in Beijing for the first time in twelve months, I was greeted by a remarkable sight from my hotel bedroom – the western hills under a clear blue sky. By today the familiar acrid haze has closed in again and you realise what a big job the ‘Bureau of Weather Modification’ (the Chinese

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates repeated a consistent Bush Administration talking point in his recent remarks about China's military rise: no, we don't see China as a threat, and yes, we have much-improved relations. But, said Gates, 'I have concerns with a variety of the military