After centuries of humiliation, domination, and colonization by the West, nearly three billion residents in the Pacific region are rising to claim what is rightfully theirs: economic prosperity, diplomatic influence, and national pride. Yet this newfound power breeds new challenges for the United States policy in Asia. The greatest headaches for US policymakers arise, of course, from the People’s Republic of China’ new aim to radically alter th...
...and the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is openly developing a strategy to counter US naval hegemony and the means to carry it out. One of the largest threats facing the US Navy in the Western Pacific is that of sea mines. Although mines have long posed a threat to the operations of US naval forces, the potential threat from all types of sea mines is still growing rapidly. Currently, more than fifty nations across...
Consider this: Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world. It has the largest population of Muslims, the second highest measure of biodiversity after Brazil, a very stable democracy despite its ethnic and geographic diversity and the potential to be a major player on the world stage in coming years. Yet Columbia University offers no courses on Indonesia and only two on all of Southeast Asia. How is it that Indonesia has come to be...
Wikimedia Commons From a financial perspective, the last fifty years or so have not been kind to Southeast Asia. Emerging from the shadow of colonialism, Southeast Asian countries established governments that were, as a rule, economically disadvantaged by the two chief byproducts of corruption: economic inefficiency (leading to the enrichment of a small elite), and capital flight (the disappearance of those elites’ money from their home countrie...
In spite of the rough economic times, it seems nothing can stop the expansion of American free trade agreements (FTAs) across the globe. The Obama administration has promised that the recent passage of FTAs with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea will help boost American exports, substantially increase our GDP, and potentially support thousands of jobs. And the buck doesn’t stop there. At the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summi...
...also portends a radical change in the way that Chinese expatriates interact with and affect the wider world. Food for thought: Just imagine how this massive demographic outpouring will affect the world. And this great leap in Asian interaction with the wider world will not stop with China. India’s population will be larger than China’s by the year 2025 and will be younger and growing to boot. Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines (amo...
...y of the Manchu”) was established a short time later. Needless to say, the Japanese lust for land was not quenched by gaining Manchuria. A full scale invasion of China was only six years behind, and full scale war against the Pacific’s other great power, the United States of America, began a decade after Mukden. For many historians of Japan, 1931 also marks the beginning of the dark period of militarism which ended only with the cataclysmic horro...
In recent months, there has been much talk of the United States’ “strategic pivot” toward East Asia and the Pacific. With the expansion of our military presence in the region and the withdrawal of troops from our now unnecessary bases in Europe, the United States is positioning itself to be ready for the problems of the 21st century: i.e. possible Chinese encroachment in Southeast Asia or a potential conflict between China and India. Most analys...
...to Latin America have been generalities. His National Security Strategy, published in May 2010, mentions the Americas poetically — he writes of developing allies “from the Americas to Africa; from the Middle East to Southeast Asia”—but devotes little attention to specific cases. His 2011 State of the Union address made but one reference to the Americas; rather than discuss policy, he simply announced an intention to travel to the region. And alth...
From Wikimedia Commons The U.S. has S.E. Asia in its sights. A few months ago, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made waves with his declaration of the United States’ new naval “strategic pivot” from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. By 2020, the US aims to have the bulk of its navy in the Pacific, up from the current 50-50 split with forces in the Atlantic. Clearly the US powers-that-be think that a little more firepower sho...
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