Global Economy
Economic diplomacy: Friends, rivals and diplomatic gaslighting
Hitting the gas
Japan’s ambassador to Australia Shingo Yamagami made himself an unexpectedly public figure in the reserved Canberra diplomatic corps with his witty social media…
Shaky foundations for the New Development Bank
Dilma Rousseff, former president of Brazil, was this month elected as the next chief of the New Development Bank. Once known as the BRICS Development Bank, and seen as an effort…
Reports
Asia Power Snapshot: China and the United States in Southeast Asia
China is more influential than the United States in a number of measures in Southeast Asia and has increased its lead over the past five years.
Economic diplomacy: Counting the cost of decoupling
Members only
Indonesia took one for the team in an era of minilaterals and “friendshoring” last week when it argued the case for its poorest neighbours to join the latest…
Climate change, ironically, reduces the heat in the South China Sea
Australia’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and United Kingdom reflects a judgement that China, and more particularly…
Indonesia’s nickel superhighway
Indonesia currently has the most significant nickel deposit in the world, putting it in a prime position to build advanced industries such as renewable energy, in which rare…
Economic diplomacy: Arming up for war and trade
Guns AND butter
It took a Second World War general-turned-president in Dwight Eisenhower to provide one of the most evocative articulations of the classic government spending…
Will India’s G20 deliver more than hot air?
Some years ago I interviewed a senior Indian bureaucrat who, as small talk, lamented the G20 and the utter waste of time it was (“all those air miles, and for what? Nothing is…
Indonesia’s uncertain climb up the nickel value chain
Indonesia has historically had limited success with industrial policy. That may now be changing, with recent interventionist policies targeting the nickel sector suggesting…
Economic diplomacy: Banking on Asia is hard to escape
Underexposed
The slow Australian bank withdrawal from the Asia-Pacific has continued in the new year as the two institutions with the longest claimed heritage in the region…