We are now just about a week into the Noda administration and a new foreign policy landscape is beginning to take shape. We have a clearer picture of PM Noda’s stance on Futenma; a commitment not to visit the Yasukuni Shrine; and a better sense of his …
What is more important: Securing Pakistan’s strategic relationship with the United States or asking what some may call the “tough questions”? The presence of Osama bin Laden in the country’s garrison town of Abbottabad may not have been in the knowledge of the top Pakistani military …
Just a quick post to draw attention to a short piece by Georgetown’s Victor Cha, who, while touring China with the Hoyas, witnessed the Great Brawl of China first hand. Given Cha’s up-close and personal experience of the event and his recent book on the politics of sport …
In her most recent post at CFR’s Asia Unbound, Elizabeth Economy lays out the range of Chinese reactions to PM Noda’s election, which has spanned, in her words, “from the bleak to the belligerent.” She writes,
“Chinese analysts point out that the prime minister has …
The recent election of Noda Yoshihiko as president of the Democratic Party of Japan, and thus Prime Minister, has set off a flurry of commentary on the foreign policy implications of the new party leadership, particularly as it relates to the reception of the leadership change …
Historian Brett Walker, in his disturbingly important new book, Toxic Archipelago: A History of Industrial Disease in Japan, draws important historical linkages between economic development, industrial pollution, pain, and the body in service of the nation-state. Though singularly focused on the toxic ramifications of Japan’s modern developmental state, …
“What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has not been deterrence, in the sense of fear of specific weapons, so much as it’s been memory. The memory of what happened at Hiroshima.” — John Hersey, Hiroshima
Early in the morning of August 6th, 1945 — 66 years …
I am going to spare you of my thoughts on the debt ceiling circus in Washington and its foreign policy implications in East Asia. (I’ll leave that to Krugman and Richardson, both of whom I think are spot on). Instead, I’d simply like to direct your attention …
First, a stunning set of pictures of North Korea taken by AP photographer David Guttenfelder, who was on a longer leash than usual during his recent visit to Pyongyang.
Second, a quick detour from the realm of foreign policy into that of East Asian historical research, my other hobbyhorse. …
For those interested in the current state of military affairs on and around the Korean peninsula, a recent report out of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Korean Military Balance, is worth a look. Spearheaded by CSIS’s indefatigable Anthony Cordesman, the report provides …
“The United States has always been a Pacific power because of our very great blessing of geography. And India straddling the waters from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean is, with us, a steward of these waterways. We are both deeply invested in shaping the future …
By way of wiping off the dust that has collected on this blog I would like to draw attention to a thoughtful piece of analysis by APARC’s Daniel Sneider, published recently by the National Bureau of Asian Research.
The thrust of his argument:
“In 2009 the …
Apropos my last post, a work of art entitled “1945-1998″ by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto.
This piece is one part of a larger project of his on nuclear explosions. More on Hashimoto and the project here.
Recent reports from the Japan have, once again, complicated the history of Japan’s seemingly steadfast commitment to its Three Non-Nuclear principles – non-production, non-possession, and non-introduction of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. (It is important to note that this is not the end-all, be-all of Japan’s …
A documentary on the political history of modern China, produced by the C.I.A circa 1967. It’s definitely worth a look.
The link is here, if the flash player isnt working for you.
(H/T Henry Hoyle)
