Asia

view

In the shadow of a pandemic, political calamity grips Afghanistan

The coronavirus pandemic has been dominating international news and monopolising the time of governments across the world as they scramble to respond and prepare. In the midst of this it was striking that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo found the time for a flying visit to Afghanistan this week in

By Chayanika Saxena

view

Economic diplomacy: Fighting global pandemics from the G20 to ASEAN

Digital mates The online summit between the leaders of Singapore and Australia on Monday didn’t get much attention amid a stock market meltdown and tensions within Australia’s newly formed federal-state leadership Cabinet to deal with coronavirus. The virtual meeting made the best

By Greg Earl

view

Covid-19: Indonesia’s crises can severely reverberate on neighbours

To date Indonesia has 514 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and growing. This may not sound particularly alarming, given Australia had 1396 according to the most recent figures, but this week Indonesia’s death rate rose to 48, the highest in Southeast Asia. A massive public health disaster in Indonesia

By Greta Nabbs-Keller

view

Philippines: Covid-19 will devastate the poor

Flaviano Villanueva was in tears last Thursday. It was day five of the “enhanced community quarantine” in Metro Manila, where the priest runs a homeless centre. The sprawling Philippine capital of 13 million people had been sealed off, and police and army troopers were guarding municipal

By Sheila Coronel

view

In India, praying the Covid away

Crises have a way of shining a penetrating light and exposing the fissures in a society – or conversely, the exact nature of what holds it together. It is something we are seeing right now, the world over. While India seems to have sidestepped the worst of the pandemic for now, what the crisis

By Aarti Betigeri

view

China is rewriting coronavirus history and nobody will stop it

In an opinion piece published in the Nikkei Asian Review, Natasha Kassam argues that China has leapt on the opportunity to shape the global narrative about its response to the coronavirus as other countries grapple to manage the crisis

By Natasha Kassam

view

Coronavirus and the Hong Kong protest movement

For authorities in both Hong Kong and in Beijing, there must be, in some circles, something of a sense of relief. The pro-democracy protests that defined 2019 had become a deadly hydra that was exhausting the resources and credibility of both governments. The enforced shutdown as a result of the

By JJ Rose

view

How people power has flattened the Covid curve in Hong Kong

The first half of March saw Hong Kong people’s attempt in bringing the city’s life back to normal amid the coronavirus scare. There are more people out in the streets, mostly wearing face masks. Many companies and the government have reduced the work-from-home arrangements and are getting people

By Vivienne Chow

view

Is Singapore feeling safe enough to go to the polls?

As news of a global pandemic dominated headlines and pushed most other news off the agenda, another breaking news bomb was casually dropped in Singapore on 13 March: the release of new electoral boundaries for the upcoming election. Based on past experience, the release of the Electoral Boundaries

By Kirsten Han

view

Are you ready for how the coronavirus is transforming the world?

As important as the health risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic and its containment are, leaders also need to start to think about the shape of the post–Covid-19 global economy. If they don’t, we all face a serious risk of succumbing to the new anti-globalisation protectionism that is on

By Alistair Nicholas, Guy McKanna

view

The future ain’t what it used to be

What do the East Timorese defence force, “clean coal”, women’s empowerment, and Kevin Rudd’s first-term government have in common? The answer is the year 2020. Back when 2020 felt like a halcyon time far-far away, this was the year that, respectively, the Government of Timor-Leste, the

By Gordon Peake, Christian Downie

view

Indonesia: Covid-19 crisis reveals cracks in Jokowi’s ad hoc politics

As he rose rapidly from furniture businessman to mayor of Solo and governor of Jakarta to president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo stuck to the same approach to politics: build things, cut some red tape, improve access to basic services (though not necessarily their quality), and lean on civil servants

By Ben Bland

view

Australia-Philippines: Prolonged partners

The announcement by the Duterte administration last month that it will terminate the 1998 Philippines-US Visiting Forces Agreement will likely also raise questions about the future of the Australia-Philippines political and security relationship. Australia and the US are the only two countries that

By Lucy West, Dan Halvorson

view

Democrats on trade, and North Korea: “No hot dish for the dictator”

This is the third of a three-part series of articles examining the Democrats’ and America’s place in the world in the lead-up to the US presidential election. The first article can be read here, and the second here. CPTPP: The trade agreement America loves to hate The fate of the

By Richard Maude

view

The Belt and Rebranding Initiative

China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) continues to defy simple explanations. Initially used as a means to promote and frame the country’s key foreign policy initiatives, it has now morphed into somewhat of an umbrella term for all sorts of Chinese overseas activities. Is this development

By Nora Schlenzig

view

Covid-19 in China, the US, India: Comparative crisis management 101

Whatever else the rapidly evolving and increasingly global health crisis may or may not do, it’s shining an unforgiving light on the relative capacities of national health systems. Even more importantly in the longer-term, perhaps, it’s providing a searching examination of political leaders, and

By Mark Beeson, Priya Chacko

view

Covid-19 will kill Moon Jae-in’s Korea détente

South Korea has become the country worst hit by the novel coronavirus outside of China, with numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases now more than 7500 and deaths more than 50. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has faced severe criticism in recent weeks for his handling of the virus – an online

By Khang Vu

view

Book review: Contest for the Indo-Pacific

Book Review: Rory Medcalf Contest for the Indo-Pacific: Why China Won't Map the Future (La Trobe University Press, 2020) The first point that emerges from Rory Medcalf’s Contest for the Indo-Pacific is that in its origins, the Indo-Pacific concept was essentially a descriptive device – a “

By Ric Smith

view

On the Mekong, Khon Pi rapids saved – for now

Just over a year ago, I reported on the uncertain future of the Khon Pi rapids, located near the Thai town of Chiang Khong and lying in the riverbed between Thailand and Laos. At issue was the desire of a Chinese company to blast the rapids and thus open the course of the Mekong for commercial

By Milton Osborne

view

Coping with Covid-19 as the Tokyo Olympics loom

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were meant to be a welcome stimulus for the Japanese economy, and an opportunity to showcase Tokyo as a vibrant, “must visit” global city. Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was also hoping that the Olympics and subsequent wave of nationalism would give him a

By Akimoto Daisuke, David Walton

view

The curious case of the US Sri Lanka sanctions

In February, the United States imposed individual sanctions against Sri Lankan military chief Shavendra Silva, who is presently both the Acting Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Sri Lanka Army. The move essentially means that Silva and his family cannot enter the United States “due to

By Taylor Dibbert

view

Who will be the 21st century’s rule maker?

Mike Mazarr and I are debating the way Asia will be “governed” in future. That term needs to be placed in quote marks because international affairs aren’t analogous to domestic politics – there is no supreme sovereign authority with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, so states

By Sam Roggeveen

view

Philippines: When democracies hit midlife crisis

Democracy in the Philippines turned 34 last week. The nation commemorated the peaceful mass demonstration that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos from power. A group of protesters wore facemasks to protect themselves from the “Duterte virus” infecting the majority of Filipinos who

By Nicole Curato

view

Malaysia is now in uncharted waters

As Malaysians reeled from the sudden downfall of Mahathir Mohamad, the appointment of Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister, and the return of the former ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, of equal significance is the entry of the Islamist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) into the government. PAS

By Amy Chew

view

Side effects: Covid-19 allows India a chance to lend Myanmar a hand

The Indian Air Force last week evacuated 112 people stranded in Wuhan, one of several operations by India to the the Chinese city at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. But while India is one of many countries to help its citizens in need, what was also striking about this particular mission&

By Teesta Prakash, Phyu Phyu Oo

view

Stirring hatreds ahead of Myanmar elections

Ethnic and religious nationalism has increasingly gripped Myanmar since intercommunal violence broke out between Burmese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in 2012. Viral disinformation, including videos of alleged terrorist attacks and anti-Rohingya propaganda linked to military accounts, has spread on

By Hunter Marston

view

Australia should speak out on India’s democratic crisis

Parts of India’s national capital have been rocked by the worst communal violence in decades, leaving more than 40 dead. The violence took place just as Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Birmingham led a large trade delegation to the country, with talk in the lead-up to the visit about the

By Ruchira Talukdar, Priya Chacko

view

India’s reckless rush to ruin

On a cold winter’s morning in November 1984, after travelling nearly 48 hours from the south of India, I stepped off a train in New Delhi. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, and the capital had become the epicentre of one of the most violent pogroms in

By Edmond Roy

view

In Afghanistan, peace or fragmentation?

A sense of déjà vu prevails in Afghanistan – it’s 2014 again. Only this time, a possible lasting peace is at stake. Hot on the heels of a US-Taliban agreement to trial a seven-day “reduction in violence”, Afghanistan’s political order faces its worst political and constitutional crisis

By Srinjoy Bose

view

Economic diplomacy: Mahathir’s APEC gamble, and aid corruption

Third turn lucky It is no surprise that Mahathir Mohamad appears to be savouring a third coming as Malaysia’s prime minister since all three of the country’s broad political groupings appear to need his support to form a government. But the parallel question hanging over regional diplomacy is

By Greg Earl

view

South Korea’s struggle with coronavirus

South Korea now has the second worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, surpassed only by China. More than 1100 people are infected, and seven have died. Unsurprisingly the political fallout is widening. The media coverage is getting sensational. Everyone has watched too many movies, and even South

By Robert E Kelly

view

Singapore: Hedging with hope

Geography has been kind to Singapore. The city state is perched on the edge of Eurasia’s vast landmass, with a commanding view over the opening to the Strait of Malacca, one of the global economy’s pulsing arteries. Today visitors to its shoreline will see a flotilla of container ships and oil

By Stephen Dziedzic

view

Taiwan Flashpoint: What Australia Can Do to Stop the Coming Taiwan Crisis

Australian diplomacy could ease rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait, if Australian policymakers rediscovered an appetite for involvement in the flashpoint

By Brendan Taylor

view

How China is changing the global balance of economic power

China has displaced the United States from its traditional dominance as a major trading partner for most countries of the world

By Roland Rajah

view

Politics comes first in China's agony

In an opinion piece originally published in the Financial Review, Natasha Kassam argues that China's biggest concern in dealing with the new coronavirus is maintaining stability and keeping its grip on information

By Natasha Kassam

view

Maluku: Obscure and notorious

We were 45 metres up, precariously perched on a platform in the rainforest canopy, looking north towards West Papua as the early morning mist cleared to reveal the shimmering coastline. “They arrested him near the waterfall, just on the other side of the valley over there,” said Pak Johan. He

By Robin Perry

view

Japan: Article 9 conundrum rears its head again

The last day in September in 2021 will mark the end of the current term for Abe Shinzo as President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Prime Minister of Japan. Due to LDP policy that a president cannot serve more than three consecutive terms, the next 18 months will most likely be Abe’s

By David Walton

view

A US-Taliban deal: What price for peace?

Albert Einstein warned humanity to beware of rotten compromises. Philosopher Avishai Margalit sought to explain this warning in an entire book. With the US and the Taliban poised to sign a peace agreement, now more than ever is the time to be wary of a “rotten compromise” on Afghanistan.

By Farkhondeh Akbari

view

China’s counteroffensive in the war of ideas

From Beijing's perspective, political influence operations are at least as important as military operations, if not more so. Although the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) military modernisation programs have been at the centre of attention for decades, China's influence operations have only

By Nadège Rolland

view

Why the COVID-19 outbreak may help China move a little further forward

The novel coronavirus viral strain COVID-19 has dominated weeks of headlines and led to extraordinary measures in an effort to quell its spread. The decision to quarantine Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – still stands as the most significant emergency action, effectively isolating tens of

By Jan Harrison

view

China-Japan-US triangle: Abe’s balancing act

The legacy for Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will be defined by how skilfully he navigates fluid geostrategic and geo-economic variables in the US-Japan-China triangle, at a time when regional order is fragmented and global governance is heavily contested. And of those points, China poses a

By Titli Basu

view

Power and legitimacy go hand in hand

I was delighted to read Sam Roggeveen’s thoughtful reply to The Interpreter article by Ali Wyne and myself about the relative qualities of US and Chinese power. Roggeveen makes good points; I agree, for example, that US military power has been critical to the post-war order. But I remain convinced

By Michael J. Mazarr

view

If a tree falls in Nepal, will anyone care?

For all its natural attributes, Nepal is considered a country that provides a template for what not to do, ecologically. Officials from neighbouring states will quietly admit to looking at Nepal in horror, as a country that has blithely sacrificed its environment in favour of rampant

By Aarti Betigeri

view

Coronavirus and the flow of information in the Chinese party-state

As the novel coronavirus outbreak crisis is unfolding across China, the Communist party’s efficiency is once again in the spotlight. On the one hand, there’s the capability to mobilise resources from across the state that allows to build new hospitals in a matter of days, a feature of Chinese

By Nora Schlenzig

view

Jokowi’s speech to the Australian parliament: an ode to friendship

The visit by Indonesia President Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”) to Canberra this month brought fresh hope of cooperation between the two nations. With Jokowi bringing the freshly ratified Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) as a “gift” for Australia, most of

By Andree Surianta

view

Minority rights are suddenly the new turf for India-Pakistan rivalry

A general rule of South Asian politics might be that every action taken by India has an equal and opposite reaction in Pakistan. This may not be strictly true, but it gives a sense of how Pakistan continues to define itself against India, and how ideas and developments in the country seem to form in

By Grant Wyeth

view

Pushing the Philippines‑US alliance over the cliff

The termination of the 1998 Philippines-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) initiated by the Duterte administration will mark a historic disruption of American power projection in the Asia-Pacific, and deal a serious blow to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea–based maritime order

By Jay Batongbacal

view

Japan–South Korea tensions show little sign of easing

2019 saw a rapid deterioration of Japan–South Korea relations on several fronts. In a culmination of the reoccurring spats over nationalist issues such as reparations for Korean comfort women and protests over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands that have characterised the bilateral relationship in recent

By Kate Kalinova

view

Bad news for the BJP as Delhi turns its back on Modi

In this month’s election to the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Adami Party (AAP or the Common Man Party) won another landslide victory, claiming 62 of the 70 seats. This left only eight for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that currently rules India under Prime Minister

By Purnendra Jain

view

The politics of racism as the Philippines struggles with coronavirus

It would almost seem nothing could further divide politics and society in the Philippines – and then the coronavirus arrived. Only three cases have been confirmed in the country, but rampant fears and unchecked anxieties are playing into the existing division. The first half of President Rodrigo

By Erin Cook

Contact Us

Lowy Institute

PO Box H-159
Australia Square NSW 1215, Australia
+61 2 8238 9000
reception@lowyinstitute.org

Media Enquiries

Erin Bassett
+61 2 8238 9035
+61 (0)409 461 795

Search

Institute - Top Menu

Asia

Pages

Useful Links

Contact Us

Our Location